Eighteen months after Zara Phillips beat him to the BBC Sports Personality of the Year title, Joe Calzaghe will be invited to meet her grandmother at Buckingham Palace after the Welsh champion boxer was appointed CBE.

Calzaghe, who is trained by his Sardinian father, Enzo, in Caerphilly, South Wales, has been the world super-middleweight champion for more than ten years and is unbeaten in 45 professional fights. In April the 36-year-old beat Bernard Hopkins, of the US, to become the world No 1 in the light heavyweight division. Many felt that he should have been given the sports personality award in December 2006, but he won it a year later as the first undisputed super-middleweight champion, uniting four titles.

On being told that he was to be honoured by the Queen, Calzaghe said: “For the first time in my life I was knocked out. It’s unbelievable when I think back to when I was a kid that one day I would have achieved so much through boxing, and my teachers laughed at me when I said I was going to be a boxer.”

Bill Beaumont, the former England and British Isles rugby union captain, has also been appointed CBE for his work with the Wooden Spoon rugby charity. Lawrence Dallaglio, a second former England rugby captain, was appointed OBE, having ended his 15-year career last month.

The same honour has been given to David Morgan, the president-elect of the International Cricket Council, and John Surtees, the former Formula One and motorcycle grand prix world champion.

Among the sportsmen to be appointed MBEs are David Healy, the Northern Ireland footballer, who, with 34 goals is his country’s leading scorer; Andy Priaulx, three-time World Touring Car champion; and Kelly Smith, the Arsenal and England women’s footballer.

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