Peter Latorre is beating all enemies, foreign and domestic.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Marine veteran from Elmont is a weapon of mass destruction in the boxing ring \u2014 and he\u2019s off to a hot start at 6-0 with victories at major venues like New Jersey\u2019s Prudential Center and Madison Square Garden\u2019s theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of which came by knockout,\u201d Latorre, a 5-foot-10, 147-pound welterweight told The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cCombat sports emulate the feeling of the military, of being in a heightened state, of being scared, and having to make critical thinking actions while you\u2019re scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter Latorre is pictured July 14. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n
The Long Island contender \u2014 he\u2019s ranked top 30 in the United States and top 100 worldwide \u2014 has earned the admiration of women\u2019s featherweight world champion Amanda Serrano while on a mission beyond just bolstering the win column.<\/p>\n
Taking the objective<\/p>\n
Latorre comes from a long lineage of soldiers and is earning his master\u2019s degree in rehabilitation counseling and licensed mental health counseling at Hofstra.<\/p>\n
Peter Latorre is a Marine veteran. Courtesy of Peter Latorre<\/p>\n
He plans on working with struggling veterans as a day job while pursuing a fight title.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen PTSD, substance abuse. My father is a recovering addict. I saw what war does to family,\u201d he said. \u201cSo to be able to sit across from another veteran that went through something similar, I think I\u2019d be able to assist them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Latorre endured his own share of hardships while in the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, stationed around the Gulf of Aden and other waterways near Somalia and Yemen, where he boarded vessels.<\/p>\n
Peter Latorre is pictured at Black Out Fight Club on July 14. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cSome casualties \u2014 there was a helicopter crash,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n
Latorre is called \u201cVoodoo\u201d \u2014 and fittingly enters the ring to Jimi Hendrix\u2019s \u201cVoodoo Child\u201d \u2014 from a nickname given to his grandfather, Luis, by comrades and Army infantrymen in Vietnam.<\/p>\n
The tough-knuckled Luis received a Bronze Star, Purple Heart \u2014 and the inescapable funky nickname \u2014 after surviving a Viet Cong ambush that wiped out 85 percent of his platoon.<\/p>\n
Peter Latorre (r.) is pictured with professional boxer Amanda Serrano. Courtesy of Peter Latorre<\/p>\n
He died in 2009 from Agent Orange exposure during the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople ask me, \u2018How do you punch so hard?\u2019 I just say it\u2019s a gift from God \u2014 and that\u2019s what my grandpa had too,\u201d Latorre said. \u201cI think it\u2019s just in the blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Presenting arms<\/p>\n
Peter Latorre trains at Black Out Fight Club on July 14. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n
A boxing coach saw the raw skill Latorre had about nine years ago while he was home after his first deployment, sparring with a cousin.<\/p>\n
It planted the seed in Latorre\u2019s mind that getting in the ring was a must after being discharged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last two years of my military service, all I did was think about boxing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He started with 26 amateur bouts from 2020 to 2024 before going pro, which all came at a cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to get shoulder surgery, hand surgery, breast surgery \u2014 but yeah, I got a lot of good experience,\u201d Latorre said.<\/p>\n
Now the combatant is vying for a truncated four to six fights before the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
Peter Latorre wears an Elmont shirt while at Black Out Fight Club on July 14. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019ll really set me up for 2027, where I can make a move,\u201d he said of getting closer to a title bout.<\/p>\n
Latorre keeps planning to train hard and assist fellow vets in the process \u2014 specifically by helping them obtain disability compensation to aid their recoveries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI myself go to therapy because it would be hypocritical for me to be a therapist and not go to therapy \u2014 but helping veterans is therapeutic on its own,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat right there is the biggest win,\u201d added Latorre, who wants to use his growing platform to help similar causes.<\/p>\n
In the ring, Latorre plans on fighting again as early as next month. <\/p>\n
The real dream is to make his hometown proud and become the first champion fighter from Elmont.<\/p>\n
He said the perfect place for a big match would be at UBS Arena someday, for locals to root on one of their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would literally bawl my eyes out,\u201d said Latorre. \u201cThat\u2019s the one for me \u2014 I can\u2019t even put into words how much it would mean to me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Latorre is beating all enemies, foreign and domestic. The 28-year-old Marine veteran from Elmont is a weapon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,38022,44554,195595,85,395014],"class_list":["post-819827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-fights","tag-long-island","tag-marines","tag-sports","tag-sports-fights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}