No youre not.


Exactly the phrase Trolls use. Well done.

Why the need to be so hostile??

I have not said anything about you personally, so why do you feel the need to be so accusatory towards myself?

All I have done is put forward a name for an award, if you disagree with my name, then fine, but why cross the line, and call me a troll, there really is no need, and it is totally uncalled for.

But Lennox is a consensus top five all time great in boxing's premier division (certainly head to head) and it's the quality of opposition that counts not an '0'.

Plus when he fought he had to deal with the disgusting jingoism of the yank boxing press.

Much as I like Joe I would rank Lewis above him in a historical sense.

Oh and don't forget about the likes of the 'Ghost with the Hammer in his Hand' either.

And Joe is a consensus greatest British boxer of all time. He held all the world titles available and went undefeated in his pro career, keeping his title for 10 years and 21 defences. As for opponents ? Roy Jones Jr, Bernard Hokins, Mikkel Kessler, Jeff Lacy, Chris Eubank. He fought some real greats ( and Richie Woodhall ) and beat them all.

But we are taking this thread off topic slightly.

If NFL is getting one, it will be the year after Tom Brady retires. I reckon he must be the highest profile sportsman in the US sports. I.e. outside stuff like tennis, golf and so on.

I reckon if Conor McGregor beats mayweather, it will catch a lot of attention. Just checked, and he's not northern Irish, is he?

Would feel a bit flat if he were to win.

No problem with Manning winning it. Think there's more chance of Eric Bristow winning it than an NFL/NBA player though.

Connor should really be in contention for the overseas award, what a year he has had!

Calzaghe's name doesn't carry much weight outside of the UK, he spent too much of his career fighting randoms on his own backyard. Lennox came out on top in the 2nd strongest era of heavyweight boxing, there's clear water between him and the rest of British boxing.

Plus a win of the corpse of RJJ doesn't mean much.



Theresa May has as much chance of beating Mayweather in a boxing match as McGregor.

I think the England rugby team should at least be in the discussion for team of the year, it's been a pretty remarkable turn around for them, though obviously they will be hoping for bigger and better things to come.

Better chance next year, unless the British Lions beat the all blacks.

Is Team GB not eligible for the team award? I would have thought the competition for that trophy was over months ago.

Presumably then Paralympic Team GB would be up against them, how you pick a winner out of those two I don't know!

They won it in 2012.

IMO the team award should be for teams competing in single-event championships (Olympic hockey tournament, Euro 2016 etc), not collectives of individuals (the best of whom are nominated for the main award anyway) in multi-sport / multi-event championships.

They were joint winners in 2012. The rules at the time actually stated Team GB were ineligible as they are a collective rather than a proper team as such but were set aside.

Incidentally under the rules UK based foreign athletes are actually eligible for the main award (so in theory Mahrez could have been nominated instead of Vardy) but it hardly ever happens.

As for overseas personality, the rules state:

"This award goes to the overseas sportsperson whose actions have most captured the UK public's imagination during 2016."

Which is why Kobe Bryant won't be winning.

i dont think batdude was suggesting Bryant for the overseas award but for the lifetime achievement, not that i think that makes much of a difference to his chances, they are still zero.

Yep, the panel were allowed to make this award because it was a unanimous decision or something like that.

I was at the show in 2012, and the audience were a bit muted in their response, as it was anticipated the Ryder Cup team would win it. Personally I disagreed with the decision, fair enough if you didn't have an outstanding candidate but that year there was. Felt a bit self indulgent and made the show feel too London 2012 focused.

Exactly - the list of heavyweight monsters that Lennox defeated is truly frightening.

Only now over a decade since he retired are the Americans finally giving him his due respect.

Head to head only Ali would be a strong favourite over a prime Lewis and even he would have had trouble.

Plus Super Middleweight is a very young division that was created created simply to fill the alphabet boy's coffers.

Joe was great but Lennox was greater.

In my opinion anyway.

Thanks for the clarifications, although now i'm even more disgruntled over Vardy being on the list ahead of Mahrez

I just wish Murray hadn't won the thing in years when his achievements weren't all that spectacular, although I am actually quite a big supporter of his. It's just that the inevitability of his, admittedly well deserved, win feels a bit boring.

Oh, and to demonstrate my lack of boxing knowledge, Lewis was clearly better than Calzaghe as he could at least manage a couple of steps of ballroom dancing. So there

I wonder if Leicester's bad league form this season will harm their chances of winning Team of the Year?

I can see some people suggesting they have only performed for 6 months whereas the England rugby team for example has produced wins and results all year..

Team GB as a whole shouldn't win - maybe the ladies hockey as an example on their own.

I still think Leicester have it in the bag - Vardy's nomination suggests their exploits last season haven't been forgotten. And I suspect the Kate Richardson-Walsh nomination in the individual category was kind of a consolation prize.

But, you know, there are worse problems to deal with than too many great contenders for SPOTY

If anything their poor form this season highlights quite what an extremely impressive, and extraordinary feat it was for them to lift the title last season.

You simply have to reward what they achieved with the team of the year, what they achieved was so unexpected, and unbelievable.

you mean they should give an award to someone who didn't get a gold medal in Rio ?

In this case yes, as Leicester achieved something that was so out of the blue, so unexpected, that unfortunately for the ladies hockey, and the male English rugby union side, that they should be rewarded for it.

so you have spent the last 4 months saying that in an olympic year, and with the level of achievement we saw for team GB in Rio, that success there should be the deciding factor for SPOTY nominations. yet here you are now wanting to give the team award to a team that had zero connection to the Olympics

why am i not surprised ...

The Paralympics and the Olympics saw some unbelievable feats, and the athletes that did very well there deserve the recognition that should come their way, that much I do believe fully in.
So many people there achieved so much, that it is very hard indeed to narrow it down.

Where Leicester are concerned though, I do have to say a huge congratulations to them, as it was such a huge feat what they did, that it is not a turn around or anything like that, to say that they deserve the team award, what they did was over achieve to such a degree that they are now paying the consequences for it.
One has to put aside any perceived or not bias towards Rio and say that their achievements were so great, that unfortunately the ladies hockey side comes in at number two, and the male English rugby union side comes in at third.

It is just about recognising a team for their achievements in the face of such stiff competition.