But now, after a 26-year absence from competing, Bendigo’s Garry Austin is getting ready to step through the ropes again.

The 61-year-old, who is a veteran of 110 amateur bouts, will compete at this weekend’s 2017 Victorian Masters Championships in Werribee.

His opponent will be no slouch.

Graham Prowse is the reigning world 75kg masters champion.

The Queenslander captured the title in the United States in February last year.

Austin, who had his first sanctioned bout at age nine in 1965, has been involved in boxing nearly all of his life.

“My father had a boxing gym and helped train the 1956 Olympic team,” he said.

“I was born in 1956, so all I ever knew was Olympic gold medal …gold medal.

“That’s why I never turned pro – I stayed amateur – a world title never meant much to me, but an Olympic gold medal did.”

Austin holds the rare distinction of being the only athlete ever to be kicked-off an Olympic Games team.

His bid to go to Canada in 1976 was quashed only a few months after he was initially selected in the team, following a loss in Dubbo.

Austin said he was put in the untenable position of having to fight a boxer several weight classes heavier than himself, a situation which was never going to end well.

The long-time trainer said he no longer held a grudge towards those who made the decision.

Despite a stellar 102-8 win-loss record – more than 50 per cent of them by knock-out - Austin said results had never been as important to him as they are to some.

“It’s not about winning and losing, it’s about giving your best performance,” he said.

That said he won three state titles as a junior and was the 1976 national senior lightweight champion.

He also holds a junior Victorian bantamweight title win over former world super bantamweight champion Barry Michael.

Austin said his decision to don the gloves was the offshoot of his involvement in training three other boxers for the Masters.

He insisted he was in great condition for his showdown against Prowse, after spending the last two months under the watchful eye of Bendigo’s Frank Pianto.

Together, Pianto and Austin have in recent years helped guide the careers of a string of talented young Bendigo boxers, including two-time state champion and recent Golden Gloves winner Jake May.

“I’m currently two kilos under the weight, so I’ll need to put on weight,” he said.

“I’m feeling great.”

Austin will be joined at the masters championships by fellow Bendigo boxers Mick Mulcahy, who will compete in the super heavyweight novice division, novice heavyweight Matt Sobey and Sharon Bradley (women’s 69kg over-40 division).