Barry Hall’s confesses uncertainty about boxing future

Former AFL star Barry Hall was hard-as-nails in his playing days but has revealed a softer side to himself ahead of his fight with Paul Gallen.

Family is the priority for Barry Hall as he considers his boxing future.

Win or lose his Code War boxing clash with Paul Gallen, Barry Hall isn’t sure whether the bout will be his one and only.

The former AFL legend and ex-NRL star will go head-to-head in a long-awaited fight at Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena on Friday night.

It’s taken more than 25 years for the former junior boxing champion to get back into the ring despite many lucrative offers from promoters over the years. But the 42-year-old said he wouldn’t know until the fight was over whether he’d go again, saying it had been rough on his television performer partner Lauren Brant and their two young boys.

“I’ll make a call afterwards — it’s results-based but one thing it has done has been really taxing on my partner and my family,” Hall told AAP.

“I can’t be the dad I want to be and be supportive and help with the kids too much because I’m away training all the time so it’s put a fair weight on them.”

READ: Gallen text reveals enormity of Code War

READ: Gallen’s dream gig under threat

The time for talk is almost over.

Hall, who retired from AFL in 2011, said that ideally he would have liked more preparation time than the seven week build-up.

“I’ve pretty much come off the couch to do this,” he said.

“I haven’t just come out of an AFL season and haven’t been actively boxing so I would have loved more time to get ready and I asked for more but was told this was the date.”

But Hall was happy with how his body responded to the workload.

“There’s been no hiccups or injuries and we’ve done everything we wanted to do,” Hall said.

“It’s been smooth sailing which is more than I thought — I thought there’d be some little hurdles but there hasn’t been at all.

“I honestly don’t feel 42 at all.”

During Thursday’s weigh-in, Gallen said he could sense Hall was “nervous” ahead of the highly-anticipated bout.

“I saw yesterday at the press conference and I saw there again at the weigh-in, he’s nervous,” Gallen told SEN.

“He hasn’t done this before. He snaps. You can’t do that in boxing. I’m in his head already.”

Gallen is undefeated in nine fights (5KOs) while Hall is on debut.

BARRY HALL AND PAUL GALLEN TALE OF THE TAPE

AGE: Hall 42, Gallen 38

HEIGHT: Hall 194cm, Gallen 180cm

WEIGHT: Hall 102kg, Gallen 101.6kg

FIGHT RECORD: Hall (0), Gallen 9-0 (5KOs)

ODDS: Hall $2.14, Gallen $1.65, Draw $15.00