AUSTRALIAN hope Gerard O'Mahony believes there will be one thing that will mark next month's Olympic Games in Beijing as very different to those of the past. It will, according to O'Mahony, be fair.

Boxing and dodgy judging controversies have gone hand in hand throughout the generations at the Olympics with hard-to-fathom losses to future professional world champions Evander Holyfield (1984) and Roy Jones jnr (1988), both regarded as among the best fighters of their generation, high-profiled examples. Australian fighters have also been victims of more than one suspect decision, particular Jeff Fenech in 1984 and Adam Forsyth in Athens four years ago.

Boxing's future had been brought into doubt by the controversies and seeming inability to clean up its own house, but O'Mahony said he was approaching next month's tournament with an optimism he had not previously had. After competing in last year's world titles, he believed the amateur boxing game was on the way to being cleaned up under the guidance of Ching-Kuo Wu, who was appointed president of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) in 2006.

"(It) was the best (tournament) I've ever been involved in amateur boxing. It didn't matter what country you came from, if you were from Cuba you didn't get a 10-point head start. I remember going (into the ring) and … normally you might win a round by five points and you came back (to the corner) and they'd say you're five down. And that's just what we were used to.

"But then (at the world titles) … a lot of the top countries got beaten because they weren't getting looked after like normal. It was really fair and even, no matter where you came from. It was just clean boxing … so I'm excited about what can happen at these Olympics."

O'Mahony, who first made a national team in 2002, said dodgy decisions had been a "nightmare" and led to the perception that Australian boxers could not compete on the world stage. Australia has never won an Olympic boxing gold, with the medal cabinet consisting of two silver and three bronze.

Phillip Goodes, boxing manager at Beijing, said he also believed that the system of electronic scoring was much improved. "I believe it has improved under the new president … I think he is very mindful of past history being an IOC member and I believe they've selected a real good list of referees and judges and they've been really, really scrutinised," Goodes said.

The Australian team will leave for a pre-Olympics camp in Thailand on Saturday, where the fighters will have the opportunity to spar against competitors from international teams also heading to Beijing.

Mahony, fighting in the welterweight division, said there was now a far different expectation for Australia's competitors, who won Oceania titles this year, to earn their berth in Beijing, from the days when a second- or third-round exit was regarded a good result.

"… We're staying positive and we're definitely thinking medals."

Goodes said Commonwealth Games champions Jarrod Fletcher (middleweight) and Brad Pitt (heavyweight), Todd Kidd (light welterweight), Anthony Little (light weight) and O'Mahony all had the form and experience to be the best chances to challenge for medals.

As for the Victorian-born Mahony, at 29 he wants to send himself off on a high after first-round exits in Athens and the Commonwealth Games in 2006. Injuries have taken their toll on the apprentice electrician who plans to move from Canberra, where he has been training in the Australia Institute of Sport program, to the southern NSW beaches to indulge his love of surfing after Beijing.