Christmas day was 'boxing' day

I hope everyone in the blogosphere and readers of this blog (both of you) had a happy Christmas. My family did me proud and I received a number of boxing-related gifts including a fantastic Rocky 'Italian stallion' Balboa boxing gown (pictured on the right) courtesy of my wife, a Boxing Legends 2010 calendar and a boxing glove signed by former heavyweight champion Frank Bruno. I now have an enviable collection of boxing autographs which includes British greats such as Joe Calzaghe, John Conteh, Howard Winstone, Alan Minter, Dave 'Boy' Green, Big Frank and legendary BBC commentator Harry Carpenter.
My brother-in-laws also gave me a copy of Joe Calzaghe's autobiography, 'No Ordinary Joe' which I'm reading at the moment. I met Joe at a charity ball some years ago (that's where I got the autograph) and he was politeness personified, although not as tall as I'd imagined him to be. The book is good too, by no means a classic, but very interesting on his Sardinian roots and the controversy surrounding his non-appearance at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 (when he surely would have been a medal contender, remember Robin Reid went away with a bronze). But I was surprised when I came across this passage on page 16: " I was even asked to compete on Strictly Come Dancing shortly afterwards, but that's not for me. I'm not into the celebrity scene and going to big movie premieres. I'm a boxer, a guy from the Welsh valleys."
Oops.
To be fair to him, he's writing about a period, after the Lacy fight, when he was still very much an active boxer. His recent Strictly adventure only came after he had retired, undefeated. It's too early for a review as such so I'll have to finish the book and get back to you.
Meanwhile, a brief look ahead to 2010. There are already some mouthwatering match-ups to look forward to: Mosely v Berto in January, Vasquez v Marquez in May and the return of the super-six fights at super middleweight including our own Carl Froch against Mikkel Kessler, but at the moment the fight everyone wants to see looks further away than ever. Ben Dirs has a nice piece here on the farce surrounding negotiations for Pacquiao and Mayweather's proposed fight-of-the-century.