It fuelled me into performing and to have the best fight of your life on the biggest night of your life meant a lot to me. It also meant finally getting recognition and respect for my years and years of hard work and for my years and years of being a champion. In America as well they suddenly realised I was one of the best pound-forpound fighters in the world.

The thing is, I've always been the favourite, so it showed my temperament that I used it to my advantage.

It made me train harder because I realised if I had failed against Lacy that would have undermined my entire reign as champion. So it was important to win that fight and I took him to school. It was sweet. Everyone was gobsmacked with the way I completely outclassed the next saviour of American boxing. Going on from there I had a different sort of fight against a dirty opponent in Sakio Bika in October and I got that by a unanimous decision as well. To be sports personality of the year on top of all that would have been great but that's another story.

To be truthful, I wasn't all that confident. Basically I said some bad things about the Sports Personality of the year. I'm an ITV fighter and I don't think being Welsh really helped my cause either.

Just look at how many Welsh people have won it in the past.

Fair enough, people were saying they were expecting me to win and a lot of bookmakers backed me but I wasn't so sure. As well, they put the boxing on last and the top three [Zara Phillips, Darren Clarke and Beth Tweddle] were all on early. I don't know if all that has anything to do with it but at the end of the day I've had hundreds of people texting and ringing me and they all reckon it was a joke. Even Darren Clarke afterwards said he was embarrassed by the fact that I wasn't in the top three and Seb Coe said something similar. So I don't know what to say because people in London, cabbies, people on the train said "what a load of shit" and I couldn't disagree.

I went in with an open mind but obviously equestrian and gymnastics are bigger sports than boxing. But at the end of the day it's a TV award, it is prestigious and would have been nice, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I know people were surprised at Zara winning it, but me?

Because of who she is, I'm not that surprised. If she wasn't related to the Queen, I'd be shocked. I think she was more surprised than anyone. But she's a champion in her own right at whatever it is she does. Obviously the horse didn't turn up which was a pity, but maybe it would have been a bit difficult to get him to sit down in the crowd. He might have caused a bit of a disturbance.

Perhaps the result undermines the award as well because people come up to me saying what a sham, a scam and a joke. I just take it with a pinch of salt. But if you walk down the street and ask 1,000 people who Tweddle . . . or whatever her name is . . . is, I'd be surprised if two would know. But I've won Welsh Sports Person of the Year, Fighter of the Year and the Sportswriters' Sports Person of the Year so I can't complain.

As for next year, well my plan is to keep winning. I want to get to a decade as world champion and to become the sixth man in history to get to that magic 20 defences of a world crown. I've a big fight 7 April and I hope everything goes to plan and I always said one day I want to go to America and get a big money fight there. If I do all that, I'll seriously consider my options after all that. I don't want too many more fights. Three of four more and that will be the end. I don't want to keep going until I get beaten, I want to get out at the top.

And if I manage that, who knows, I might even win BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Joe Calzaghe is the WBO and IBF Super Middleweight Champion of the World with a perfect record of 42 straight wins Joe Calzaghe is the WBO and IBF Super Middleweight Champion of the World with a perfect record of 42 straight wins