Working with all types and levels of fighters since 1993, Peter gives credit where it’s due—to the athletes he works with. He maintains that not only is Kenny Florian easy to work with, but that Florian’s ability makes Welch look good.
“It’s not the trainer that makes the fighter,” insists Welch. “It’s the fighter that makes the trainer.”
Not only has Welch had success working with top level athletes, but his knowledge of boxing helped him snag a role in Martin Scorsese’s 2006 blockbuster The Departed.
Describing the casting interview at an upscale five-star Boston hotel, “They said ‘You’re going to meet one of the directors.’ I never thought that it was going to be Scorsese.”
“I walk into the room and there he is—larger than life. The biggest thing that stood out about him was his glasses. He was sitting there in his chair, we started talking about the fight game and we hit it off.”
He was flown into New York City for his scene as a prisoner, shot at a real Queens jail, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Speaking to the star, Leonardo told Welch that he was a fan of Mixed Martial Arts, demonstrating the growing popularity of the sport.
Now with UFC 118 coming to Boston on August 28, Peter believes that the city is on the verge of a changing of the guard from boxing to MMA as the premier combat sport.
“I see the evolution when it comes to fighting sports. There’s no activity in Boston when it comes to boxing. MMA has just completely taken over.”
Drawing on his own tutelage under different coaches as a youth, Welch was always shown different techniques employed with different styles. He never got a sense of what the exact truth was, but eventually he reached a conclusion of his own to explain the way things work.
“The truth was to adapt, and to have the ability to change with the situation.”
Welch has done exactly that and found a new niche with MMA to help fighters make the transition to sharper punching educated with his knowledge of the sweet science. He’s directly benefited from the boom in MMA— he’s also going to move from a 2,000 square foot gym to an 8,000 square foot facility this fall
Now that Peter is helping Brock Lesnar out by flying out to his camp for several days at a time to work on his boxing, the question now remains—with parity in wrestling between the two fighters, and striking perhaps being the decisive factor, just how much can Brock Lesnar absorb and implement before his match against dangerous knockout artist Shane Carwin?
“Let’s just say that technically, he’s going to be a different fighter on July 3rd.”