When Tyson Fury dreamt of becoming the Heavyweight Champion, he probably didn't expect a national row about whether sport should actually recognise his achievements at all.

On November 28, Fury gave British sport what it has sorely missed by beating Wladimir Klitschko to become WBA, IBF and WBO champion in a sport struggling for regular attention.

It should have been one of Britain's great sporting occasions in recent years, up there with Andy Murray winning Wimbledon or Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis-Hill grabbing gold at the London 2012 Olympics.

But the result has left a sour taste in the mouths of the British public, who are calling for his name to be taken off the list for BBC Sports Personality of the Year (SPOTY) 2015.

Outrage pins Fury on the ropes because, in 2013, he said he'd "hang" his own sister if she was promiscuous, called fellow fighters "gay lovers" and called for his dad, who gouged someone's eye out, to be released from prison.

As if that wasn't enough for the "Gypsy King", he floored his reputation again by comparing homosexuality and abortion to paedophilia before his fight this year.

And offering further blows to his credibility, Fury then told the public he believed a women's best place was "in the kitchen and on her back."

So with that in mind, should we adhere to the BBC's defence that the SPOTY is purely about sporting achievements and ignore his comments?

Or should he be excluded from the list and confined to the British dustbin of non-recognition?

I would argue the latter wholeheartedly. Here's why.

I first got involved in sport when I was around seven, clinging on to every word England's footballers said as if were the law, at an age I also believed my parents when they told me Father Christmas was real.

As an obsessive for football and boxing as a kid and in my teens, athletes meant everything to me, from what they wore to what they said.

I would copy them with attentive detail, demanding the same football boots David Beckham wore and would have nodded in agreement if he told me it was right to jump off a cliff.

Which is exactly why I'm shocked Fury has failed to recognise the responsibility of becoming a household name.

He has a right to hold and speak his views, albeit abhorrent, in the public because public speech is what we cherish so much in the UK.

But that principle changes when you become heavyweight champion of the world, when the eyes and ears of young Brits cling on to your every word.

As an adult I can recognise how horrifying his comments must be to homosexuals and women in a way I wouldn't have when I was no more than a young teenager.

So if the BBC are serious about using sport to spur on communities in the UK, which they did so well at during the London 2012 Olympics, they'd take this detestable public figure off this year's SPOTY list.