Ringside Report Looks Back at Heavyweight Contender Scott Welch

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

If there has been a much talked about trend in the UK, over the last few months, it has been the number of boxers who have their fathers in the corner working for, guiding and training them. Of course, the Teofimo Lopez/ Loma fight was the most high-profile example of from last year of not one but two fighters with fathers I their corners. In the UK recently we had controversy, after Lewis Ritson’s father threw in the towel and the referee threw it back out again to give his son time to recover! It was also not long ago that the WBC banned the very practice!

Now we have another to add to the mix with the introduction of The Brighton Rock’s son – another Welch with which to conjure, Tommy Welch, trained by dad Scott.

Scott Welch, 22-4, 17 KO’s, was a decent fighter in the domestic and international scene as a heavyweight and will be the type of trainer, I am sure that the whispers in his son’s ear shall have the sharpness he showed when fighting. It is fair to say, however, Welch’s name is not the first you think of when you consider UK heavyweights from his era.

Dad was the ABA champion in his amateur days which saw him propelled not just by expectation, but clear ability, to where he gathered the Southern Area belt, and the British, Commonwealth and WBO intercontinental titles. He did get himself in the ring for a world title, in 1997, when he took his shot against another British fighter, Henry Akinwande, but lost by a wide points margin.

Having debuted in 1992, in Norwich and against John Williams, he then went to Antwerpen to face Gary Williams winning on points. In his third fight Scott tasted his first defeat when Gary Charlton, a journeyman stopped him in the 3rd round of a scheduled 6 rounds! Held in the Doncaster Dome, Welch was unfortunately cut, and this led to the halting of the fight.

His first title fight was in 1994 when he took on James Oyebola for the WBC international strap. Stopped in the 5th round, at Atlantic City, he had been well ahead on the cards and had Oyebola on the canvas in the 3rd!

He was to avenge that loss the following year after managing to knock out Julius Francis, who went on to share a ring with Mike Tyson, for the Southern Area title. He went into the ring in the Metropole Hotel in Brighton on the 27th of October 1995 and stopped Oyebola to win both the British and Commonwealth belts.

In 1996 he went abroad again, this time to Charlottenburg, and took on a British legend in Joe Bugner. He collected the WBO intercontinental title with a 6th round knockout against a Bugner in his 77th professional fight!

You can see how such a record would get him closer to a world title and that chance came on the 11th of January 1997, in Nashville. An all-British world heavyweight title fight – imagine that! Akinwande held onto his belt in a wide points win.

To rub salt into his wounds, two years later Scott rematched Julius Francis, the man he had beaten for the Southern Area title, in Millwall, for the British and Commonwealth crowns. A closer fight, it was to be his last hurrah in the sport as a professional boxer.

Since retiring he has continued to have fitness at the heart of what he does, managing to complete the Marathon Des Sables in the Sahara, climbing Kilimanjaro and coaching at his old gym in Brighton and Hove. He has even launched an app for young people to get into boxing – iBoxing Trainer – which has been endorsed by both the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the British Boxing Board of Control! Given his commitment to working and giving back to the sport, the WBC have handed him an honorary belt in recognition of his service.

Oh, and he has also played Horace “Good Night” Anderson opposite Brad Pitt in the film, Snatch. Not bad at all!

But his career within the boxing fraternity is far from finished. Having just introduced his son, Tommy into the pro game after a distinguished amateur career where he had 38 contests, winning 29 of them with success with four national titles, a Junior ABA and the very prestigious Haringey Box Cup, it looks like Scott shall be hanging round a gym and ring for quite some time to come!

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