English super-flyweight champion Andy Bell has been preparing for taking the next big step in his career by working up a sweat in a gym designed for putting red-hot babes through their paces.
Bell's training camp in Tenerife, headed by trainer Matt Scriven, got a shock when they returned to the Spanish gym where Andy got himself in top condition to claim his first major title.
Scriven takes up the story. "Tenerife is an ideal place to prepare, we have got everything at a stone's throw away, or so we thought!
“We have the beach for sprints, the sea to swim, Mount Teide for altitude training and last time we came a nice little boxing gym which has now been converted to a pole dancing studio for trainee dancers! It's fair to say we got a bit of a shock on arrival.
“The first day we arrived we rolled up at what we thought was our faithful boxing gym; bin bagged up, only to find pole dancers instead of boxers.
“To cut a long story short, they welcomed us with open arms (is that all? - Ed.) and it's now our adopted training base. We've been doing all of our gym sessions there and it's actually been an ideal base to train.”
Bell has been getting in some quality sparring with Danny Wallace and Jason Booth as well as many of the lads down at the Costello's stable.
Andy is now in the best shape of his life and he'll need to be come 28th of March. He faces Stoke's Chris Edwards who claimed the vacant British title with a thrilling 12 round split decision over Doncaster's Jamie McDonnell last December.
It looks like we should be in for another cracker at the Barnsley Metrodome. Joining the many fans who will be tuning in to Sky Sports 1 are a set of Spanish babes who will be cheering Bell on and who will be glad, I'm sure, to get their dance studio back!