Carl Walker begins his training

ON Tuesday I felt pretty much the favourite as I stood opposite the boxing bag, gloves on and waiting for the bell to start five two-minute rounds with the grim-looking lump of plastic.

However, after the third round I was ready for the ref to jump in and stop the fight. By the fourth the bag swung back and managed to get a few blows in itself and the less said about the fifth round the better.

It’s going to be a long ten weeks.

Jersey’s champion boxer Ben Murray is going to be pushing – or hauling – 20 of us through his gruelling training programme so that we’re going to be ready to fight in front of more than 500 people in July.

For those that don’t know, this is all being done for charity – and a great chance to get super fit for the summer.

But there’s an added problem for me: the small matter of my wedding.

Just two weeks after walking into that Starlight room at the Hotel de France with music blaring, lights flashing and the ring taking centre stage, I’ll be walking up the aisle, music playing, cameras flashing and my bride taking centre stage.

I’m not sure which is the more daunting of the two, but one thing is for sure: If I step out of that boxing ring after three two-minute rounds with a black eye, a missing tooth or my nose splattered across my face, it will certainly be worth keeping my gum shield in for my arrival back home.

If you were to, quite legitimately and quite sensibly, ask me ‘Why’, I probably couldn’t tell you.

I’ve interviewed plenty of visiting boxers to the Island and watched many a local boxing match while doing my stint on the JEP’s sports desk. And I’ve always wondered if it was something that I could manage. But going off my first two sessions, it’s going to be very tough.

If any local football players are reading this, just think of the pain of those pre-season training sessions on the dunes – and double it. At least with football, you get to play around with the ball for a bit when all the doggies, pres-ups and squat thrusts are finished.

But in boxing, your rest is to get the gloves on and start relentlessly attacking boxing bags.

There’s literally no rest.

And one fight that I definitely won’t be winning? Me versus the skipping rope. I’ve never skipped before in my life and when I was asked to do in front of huge mirrors – and with all the junior boxers waiting to start their training (and occasionally sniggering) in the background – I just wished that someone would ring the bell and get me out of there!