SO, I am two weeks into training for Strictly Come Dancing, and I have to say, it’s really hard work!

More than I could have imagined, it’s a lot of work and very gruelling, but I am enjoying myself, I guess I’ve missed training every day and this is a brilliant way of staying in shape and learning something new.

I’ve laughed that I am the favourite with the bookies, talk about a blind bet!

No one has seen me dance yet and I have joked before that I’ve got two left feet, but I am trying to do something about that at the moment.

My professional dance partner - Kristina Rihanoff – has thankfully been patient with me and hopefully I am starting to improve.

When I was still fighting I said I would never do a reality television series – OK, I said it in quite strong terms – but at the moment, I could see no good reason not to do it and plenty of reasons that suggested it would be a lot of fun.

It’s absolutely great for my kids, the boys will enjoy going to London for the live shows and they are already having a laugh watching me.

The main one, though, is my mum, she’s a big fan of the programme and she’s excited that I am doing it.

She’s never been a fan of coming to watch me box; she hates it in fact, and was a big reason why I hung up my gloves when I did; though she’d have loved me to do it a lot earlier!

But she’s really excited about being able to watch me on Strictly, all the family are, and hopefully I can do quite well.

My partner has been coming to Newbridge to do the training and we get on well, which is a big relief, but the clock is ticking until the first live show and I am really nervous.

It all begins on Friday, September 18, and I am dancing on the first show, so the clock is ticking and the pressure is on.

But I am an undefeated champion, so I hope to stay like that for as long as possible.

I know that the sportsmen who have done the show before have enjoyed it a lot, and hopefully I will, too.

Meanwhile, back in the boxing world (this is a boxing column after all) I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped make the first Calzaghe Promotions show in Newport such a success.

We had a brilliant night, I thought the standard of fights was exceptional and it was personally fantastic for me to see Bradley Pryce and Gavin Rees back in the ring doing what they do best.

Gavin will want a tougher challenge in his next fight, but he got rid of some of the cobwebs and Bradley I thought was absolutely exceptional, he really, really impressed me. He looked in the best shape of his career and all credit to him for that, he is chasing a British title shot – both the boys are and hopefully, sooner rather than later, that’ll happen.

Hari Miles also had a good win and what’s really exciting is that our next show, set for early November at the Newport Centre, will also feature Tony Doherty, another Team Calzaghe member with all the talent in the world.

We are also currently talking to a number of fighters about joining us from outside the stable. We have a world class trainer in place in the shape of my dad, so we’re hopeful of attracting some new blood very soon.

Some of the boys are coming back into the gym and it’s a good atmosphere now they’re all active again, and they’ve also got a new training partner.

We’ve not got any agreement on paper just yet and are just talking, but we’ve got a former world champion training with us, someone with an undefeated record and whose best achievement was one few can boast, beating the brilliant Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright a few years back.

He is Namibian Harry Simon, the former WBO light middleweight world champion and we’re thrilled he’s here.

It’s fantastic for all the boys to have him training in the gym and I believe he’s having a good time in (not so) sunny South Wales.

That’s about all from me, I’ve got to get those dancing shoes back on!