2017 Sports Personality of the Year Preview : Joshua to Knock Out the Opposition
- VENUE
- Echo Arena Livepool
- TIME
- Sunday December 17th 6.45pm
- BROADCAST
- Live on BBC 1
Another sporting year is nearly over and it's not been the greatest for Britain in a lot of sports but there has been some success. This preview looks ahead to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards as Anthony Joshua and Lewis Hamilton battle it out for first place.
Anthony Joshua
Despite only having two fights this year, Anthony Joshua has become the heavily odds-on favourite to win this award. He's the most popular British pugilist since Frank Bruno who was second in this way back in 1995. Joshua beat Wladimir Klitschko to win some more versions of the World Heaweight title and then defended it against Carlos Tackem. He's not just a great sportsman but is just so popular with fans flocking to see him box and he's one heck of a good interview too. Joshua will undoubtedly win this year and if successful in big fights next year against the likes of Deontay Wilder and possibly Tyson Fury, he could possibly win this award next year too unless of course England win the World Cup of course.
Lewis Hamilton
It's been another successful year for Lewis Hamilton and again he's the top dog in the motor racing world. He won his fourth F1 World Title and what looked like being a close battle with Ferrari turned out to be a convincing win in the end as Mercedes continued their domination of the sport. Hamilton has already won this title in 2014 and been runner-up in both 2007 and 2008 so he's a popular guy. Whether he'd be the same if driving in a McLaren with a dodgy Honda engine is another question.
Mo Farah
Despite all his world titles, Mo Farah has never won this award. His best performance was in 2011 when he came third, strange how he can get a knighthood for his sporting triumphs yet never even finish in the top two in this. He seems a popular guy so it's a bit of a mystery why he hasn't had more success in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. In 2017 he finished his track career with another 10,000m world title and he could well finish in the top three this year.
Harry Kane
It's reasonable to guess that when talking about Sports Personality of the Year, we're not including August. It doesn't say a lot for British footballers when Harry Kane is the only one in the top realms of the betting for this award. He's been the top scorer in England's top football league and is a likeable guy but has no chance of winning this unless Spurs fans spend all night making multiple phone calls.
Jonathan Rea
If you don't follow the sport of superbikes, you may well be wondering just who Jonathan Rea is. He's won three successive Superbikes titles and won this year's title with five races to go. Awarded an MBE earlier in the year, he scored a record number of points this season. He could well squeeze into third place but his relative anonymity amongst most sports fans won't help him.
Freebets.org.uk Prediction
Anthony Joshua has become one of the most popular sporting celebrities this year and it's clear that he is going to win this award. This preview believes the best value is to go for Lewis Hamilton to win in the 'Without Anthony Joshua' market.
Statistics
- Andy Murray has won this award for the past two years and three of the last four.
- The last boxer to win the award was Joe Cazalghe in 2007.
- No footballer has been named BBC Sports Personality of the Year since Ryan Giggs in 2009.
- Lewis Hamilton won the award in 2014 and has been runner-up twice in 2007 and 2008.
- The last woman to win the award was Zara Phillips in 2006.