It is not every day that someone gets to celebrate ten years as a world champion, but Joe Calzaghe is not just anyone. Yesterday he marked a decade since he won the WBO super-middleweight title by beating Chris Eubank in Sheffield, a decade of extraordinary dedication, with plenty of ups and downs. “I thought they might take me somewhere lavish to celebrate,” Calzaghe said. “But, no. They held it at my bloody gym, same place I am every day. I suppose it’s appropriate.”

Appropriate because he is three weeks away from what many people think will be the toughest bout of his career; appropriate, too, because it has taken him most of the past ten years to receive anything like the recognition he deserves.

Calzaghe, 35, was presented with a glass trophy to mark the occasion, a step up from the cake he was half-expecting – one he would not have been able to eat as he forces his body down to the 12-stone limit for his world super-middleweight title unification match against Mikkel Kessler at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, on November 3.

“It was never easy for me to make super-middleweight and it certainly hasn’t got any easier,” Calzaghe said. “I certainly never thought I’d be world champion for ten years. I always thought I’d be retired and have enough money to put my feet up when I was 32. Things don’t always work out the way you think, though.”

The longest reigning of boxing’s many world champions, Calzaghe is also the first British boxer to reach this landmark. The bout against Kessler will be the 21st defence of his title, putting him only four short of the all-time record set by Joe Louis, the great world heavyweight champion of the 1930s and 1940s. Many will say that Calzaghe’s many defences against little-known opponents should disqualify him from being linked to Louis, but many of Louis’s opponents left much to be desired; at one time they became colloquially known as the “Bum of the Month” club.

But Louis’s record is not on Calzaghe’s radar. “I don’t fight to break records,” he said. “I’d rather have two great fights against big-name opponents than five easy fights to break a record. The last thing I want is for my career to just peter out.” Kessler, 28, of Denmark, who is unbeaten and holds the WBC and WBA titles, represents Calzaghe’s biggest challenge since he took the IBF title from Jeff Lacy, an unbeaten American who was being pushed as the new Mike Tyson, 19 months ago. But, with such a contest ahead, Calzaghe finds it easier to get himself to the gym.

“I need these kinds of fights,” he said. “I need the excitement, that bit of fear to get me motivated. Ten years isn’t the end, this is the start of year 11. I’ll stop when I’m ready.”

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