TYSON Fury has certainly lived up to his name this week.

Defeating Wladimir Klitschko to become world heavyweight boxing champion has become a sideshow to the vitriol he has generated with comments about, among other things, homophobia.

And with good reason.

Such offensive and ignorant remarks have no place in the modern world and should be treated with the contempt they deserve.

Thousands of people have since signed an online petition to have the 27-year-old (pictured) removed from the BBC sports personality of the year shortlist. But there is a simpler way to make the point — just don’t vote for him.

It’s a free, public vote, so choose someone else.

Like Andy Murray, who deserves to win this year for pretty much single-handedly winning the Davis Cup for Great Britain.

Which is also where some of the problem lies.

This annual extravaganza is not about personality in its literal definition and it hasn’t been for a long time.

If it was, then Murray would likely be further down the list.

Fury would also be quite high, regardless of how unpalatable that would be to many people, including myself.

It is about sporting achievement and is judged on that basis.

Under that criteria, Fury is on the list by merit.

His views are archaic and utterly distasteful but we’re not judging him on that.

Whether the panel should have thought about the impact of including Fury in the first place is a moot point.

After all, some people will hold the fighter in high esteem and aspire to be him, in the ring at least. He is a role model in that sense.

For his outbursts to be gaining so much publicity is not good.

But the panel picked him out for his achievement, nothing else. As they did with the other 11 candidates.

By all means, sign the petition to have Fury omitted, but that is unlikely to change the minds of the organisers.

Instead, if you’re planning to vote, opt for any of the other contenders who have thrilled us over the past 12 months.

Fury can’t win that way.