THIS will be my final column of 2009 and I guess in a lot of ways I will remember this year as being a bit of a strange one for me, my first for nearly three decades where I wasn’t involved in boxing – as a fighter at least.

I always said that I would retire on my own terms and I feel hugely vindicated in that decision, I don’t have any regrets about it whatsoever.

I am enjoying my life a lot, I get to spend more time with my kids, more time doing stuff for charities and of course, visiting our Newbridge Boxing Gym and staying in decent shape.

Personally I think staying busy is incredibly important when you retire, because so many ex-sportsman seem to slip down the road to depression.

It’s really easily done, you are used to being fit and active and suddenly don’t have a reason to get out of bed in the morning and become lazy and nostalgic for what you used to have.

I think that is why such a massive number of boxers in particular just can’t stay retired, but I can tell you I am not going down that road, my decision on this is final, I won’t box again.

Even though I have not had a single fight in 2009, I still seem to have made the headlines for my participation in Strictly Come Dancing.

I don’t have any regrets whatsoever about doing the show, I enjoyed it in many ways.

I found the actual mechanics of it, learning a completely new skill that was so different from boxing, to be a really good challenge, something I thoroughly enjoyed.

I also liked the bond between the contestants. We all got on really well because you’re all in the same boat and all have the same pressure.

Unfortunately, I just couldn’t get to grips with the live shows. I don’t think I did myself justice even once, I was simply overcome with nerves and I don’t remember that part of it too fondly!

But ultimately, the idea was to do a show that appeals to more than just boxing fans and to that end, I think it was a great experience and sets me towards one of my two big aims for 2010.

I spoke before about staying busy and next year I intend to keep pushing hard with Calzaghe Promotions and increasing the amount of media and charity work I do.

It’s great to be able to help charities when you’re in a position to and I have plans for some television work as well.

It’s early days, but my management company has been in talks about a couple of possible television shows, which is hugely exciting.

I am also going to be taking acting lessons in 2010.

It’s not something I would have ever had a chance to do before, but I think it will be an interesting experience and I would love the chance to do some acting if it was possible.

People don’t think that is me because I am a shy guy who always shunned the limelight and commercial opportunities when I was fighting, but I think I had to do that.

I don’t believe you can court celebrity (not that I am doing that, I just want to stay as busy as possible) and try to always be in the news and on television and be a true champion.

The standards I set for myself and my desire to stay at the top of boxing meant I had to block everything else out and focus on nothing but winning fights.

I didn’t have time for distractions and that policy worked brilliantly for me, but a lot has changed in my life and I no longer have those worries as a professional boxer.

Onto the boxing and it’s been a great couple of weeks for Calzaghe Promotions after Gavin Rees’ brilliant performance in Prizefighter.

Gavin took a huge risk in entering in the first place, having fought only once in 18 months and entering at light welterweight, meaning he was the smallest guy in the best line-up they’ve ever had.

But he was back to his best in my opinion, he was terrific all night and hopefully his victory means that he is back at the top level where he belongs.

We are hoping to get Gavin a world title fight in 2010 and it can be a massive year for him.

It has also been a good week for Welsh sport with Ryan Giggs following up his win in Wales to be named as national BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

I was lucky enough to be there and I was thrilled for Ryan, he’s had a magnificent career and a great season as well and I personally think he was a really worthy winner.

Another worthy winner was Amir Khan in his first world title defence, absolutely blasting away Dimitri Salita in a result that I think we all saw coming.

Salita is not a world class fighter, Amir was always going to be too strong for him, but it certainly capped off a good year for British boxing.

Carl Froch is continuing to do well in the super middleweight Super Six tournament and of course David Haye has arrived as a massive player in the heavyweight division as well.

Hopefully 2010 can be even better, we have some great young fighters coming through.

And of course, we will hopefully see Manny Pacquiao against Floyd Mayweather, which could well be one of the sporting highlights of the year.