Boxing priest to make pro comeback at 54

At age 54, boxing priest Father Dave Smith will make his professional comeback 20 years after his last bout to become Australia's oldest ever pro fighter.

The Sydney-based Smith will fight Glen Aristides - a man 10 years his junior - in the super middleweight bout later this month.

The Anglican parish priest known as the Fighting Father has fought regularly as an amateur since his retirement at 34 and has few concerns about his physical state ahead of the fight.

Smith easily passed a pre-fight medical and has been running around 100 kilometres a week to help him shed six kilos since Christmas.

"I don't know why I'm so bloody fit at the moment," Smith told AAP.

"I figure it must be the good Lord's way of telling me, `get back into the ring'.

No stranger to intense training, he spent more than eight straight hours in the ring to set a world record for continuous rounds in 2012.

And, if things go to plan, the February 19 bout won't be his last, with Smith aiming for half a dozen fights in 2016.

"When the body starts to fall apart, I'll know it's time to stop," he said.

He still has a few years to become the world's oldest professional boxer.

That honour belongs to British cruiserweight Steve Ward, who's 59.

Individual achievements aside, for Smith, it's all in the name of charity.

He hopes to raise around $30,000 for a number of boxing-based youth programs in Sydney and overseas.

"This is why I got into it in the first place. It's always just been a way of raising money," he said.

"It hasn't resulted in huge numbers coming to church, but it certainly has resulted in a lot of guys getting off heroin and getting their lives together."

"Boxing seems to really work as a form of therapy."

Smith is keen for a high-profile opponent to draw a big crowd and boost his fund-raising efforts.

He praised Aristides for stepping forward but said his adversary won't find it easy.

"I get the feeling he's pretty nervous and he probably should be too," Smith said.