He won this title back in February by a round two technical knockout.

This fight, in Umina, was the stepping stone to his latest title fight and the resultant gold medal.

Last week, on the Gold Coast, Vaughan had two fights in the National Championships.

His first, against Queensland competitor Denis Kovacs, was the closest of the two contests but he was awarded the win on a split points decision.

The 17 year old Goulburn boxer said that he and Kovacs are both about the same age, and very evenly matched, so right from the start he expected a very tough fight.

“I was quite nervous when I stepped into the ring, but as the first round progressed I improved in my confidence,” Vaughan said.

The national titles contests ran from Thursday to Sunday and Vaughan considered himself lucky that he only had two contenders for the national title in his age group.

The other contestant, Dylan Mallia from Victoria was much taller than the 185cm Vaughan, standing over two metres tall and a year older than him too.

Despite these advantages the Victorian, right from the start of the fight, was tentative in his performance.

“He did not come forward to assert himself and was surprised by the power of my punches,” Vaughan said.

“He was pretty agile to start, but every move he made I countered and landed some pretty handy hits.

“I had to watch every move he made but at the end of the first round I was confident I had the upper hand.

“ I tried to keep up the intensity and counter any of his punches and jabs. He tended to jab quite a bit but without much power, so I either went higher or lower.

“I won the fight on a unanimous points decision and therefore the Australian title.

“It was a tough fight, just the same, but a lot easier than the first one against Denis Kovacs.”

Vaughan has mostly been trained by his father Steven Vaughan. 

When Damien started training at the Goulburn PCYC they put him and his father in touch with the PCYC Academy coach Joel Keegan in Umina.

“He helped me and dad a lot with our training.” 

Future hopes 

This year Damien, who moved to Goulburn with his parents and siblings, about 12 months ago has been splitting his time between Goulburn, where he trains at the PCYC and Macquarie Fields where his grandmother lives and where he goes to TAFE, and is studying to be a personal trainer.

“Grandma has not been very well of late, so we have been spending a fair bit of time with her.

“I would rather be doing this course at TAFE than going to school, I am not really academically inclined and it is something I can do.

“I also train, at grandma’s place when I am not in Goulburn.”

“I would specially like to thank the PCYC for getting me into their program as it has really helped me to progress with my boxing.”

Vaughan is hoping that his national title win last week will give him the opportunity to be a member of the Australian Boxing Team to compete at the World Youth Games in Russia later this year.

Boxing Australia usually only selects a team of six or or so boxers across all weight divisions to compete at the World Championships.