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Former AFL star Barry Hall says he's undecided whether he'll back up from his Code War fight to Paul Gallen even if he wins their bout in Melbourne.

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."

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."