Joe Calzaghe and Kristina Rihanoff shared a "sexy chemistry"
Former boxer Joe Calzaghe might have dazzled in the ring but on Friday night the Strictly Come Dancing judges were less than impressed by his tango.
Judge Bruno Tonioli described his debut performance for the hit BBC show as "boring" while Craig Revel Horwood said the ex-fighter lacked aggression.
Our man from Newbridge, Caerphilly, trailed at the bottom of the leader board with a score of 16 out of 40.
But his "sexy chemistry" with dance partner Kristina Rihanoff was praised.
New judge Alesha Dixon was the woman behind the comment. She also noticed that the unbeaten boxing champ looked to have smelled his partner's hair during the performance and "looked petrified!".
Back in Wales and Sarah Burnell, who runs her own dance school in the Pencoed area, near Bridgend wasn't massively impressed with the bookies' favourite either.
"It was very disappointing," she said of Calzaghe's moves.
"We were all expecting to see an exciting performance from him."
But she said she still had high hopes for his future development as a dancer, if he survives the public vote.
"As we have seen in the past, some celebrities do improve as the series progresses," she said.
Television critic Tina Baker was much more enthused by the contender's rhythmic feet - and his looks.
"I loved him, I thought he was smouldering, less is more," she said.
"There is a definite chemistry between him and his partner."
Commenting himself on speculation about this chemistry with Rihanoff, Calzaghe was typically cool.
"We spend a lot of time together and we get on as well, so that's really good, and we really enjoy the training, and that's about it really. That's it," he said.
So Joe will have to pull up his dance socks to catch former Hollyoaks actress Ali Bastian, now Pc Sally Armstrong in the Bill, who scored the highest in Friday night's show with 30 out of a possible 40.
On Saturday night, he and Rihanoff showed off their Latin moves with a Cha Cha to Eva Cassidy's version of "Chain of Fools". And despite scoring the lowest among all the couples, they survived.
Tennis star Martina Hingis became the first famous face to be voted off, beaten in a dance-off by Crimewatch presenter Rav Wilding.
The remaining eight couples compete for the first time next week, although they took to the floor in a group mambo last night.
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