Scott Welch was glad that one of his boxers Nick Webb took his massive opportunity by winning the IBO International heavyweight title in Gibraltar at the end of last month.

The 33-year-old battered two-time world amateur bronze medallist Erik Pfeifer to win by TKO inside two rounds on undercard for Dillian Whyte’s rematch with Alexander Povetkin.

But former British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Welch, who was in Webb’s corner for the fight, believes he grabbed his opportunity on a massive stage.

He said: “It was a massive fight and a great opportunity and we grabbed it with both hands and brought the belt back.

“It was a massive stage for him and for me the mental side of it is what I believe I am good at. So when I install that into Nick, he then gets the belief and that is the magic formula.”

But Webb has had a stop-start career. After turning professional he began being coached by Welch, who works at Brighton and Hove amateur boxing club.

Webb spent the first three-and-a-half years living in Brighton and managed to reach 12-0.

However, his career nearly came to an end in 2018 after suffering a horrific injury.

He ripped the muscle from the bone on his shoulder, when he was out running with his girlfriend in the snow in Germany.

And Welch admits they were not sure if he would have been able to fight again at the time.

He said: “We got to 12-0 and he then went running in the snow with his girlfriend and injured his shoulder, ripping the muscle off the bone.

“So he had to have that re-attached and for a time we did not know if he was going to fight again, so we said to Nick, you go back to Woking ,where he is from, and rehabilitate and work on your training down there.

“He then took himself back to Woking and was training there.

“Nick then made his comeback and had three fights won one and lost two with another trainer.

“Then we accepted to go into the Ultimate Boxxer and that was when he asked if I would be in the corner for him because he felt better with me in his corner.

“I said ‘of course I will’ and we won the competition, which was three fights in one night to win the Ultimate Boxxer.”

However, the first lockdown hit Webb hard, as Welch explained: “Then the lockdown came and that hit him quite hard, so he put on quite a bit of weight I think it was about three or four stone and wasn’t in a good place at all.

“Then we started to get ready for the fights and the weight was coming down and then we got the offer to fight with Pfeifer (Erik) and we realised we can beat him.

“We had a plan and put it together and then he nailed the plan of how we wanted the fight to go.”

The fight as mentioned was the undercard for the rematch between Whyte and Povetkin.

But Welch revealed how their stay in Gibraltar was kept Covid-safe.

He said: “We stayed on this ship called the Sunborn, which is a super-yacht hotel.

“We also got flown in on a private charter by BA (British Airways) and it was just for us which was just an incredible experience.

“Then we got there and stayed in isolation on the Sunborn, with the rest of the ship, so even the staff on the aeroplane and the pilots stayed on the ship with us and then we flew back home together.

“So apart from getting in the ring and fighting we all stayed in a bubble, so it was a pretty amazing experience really.”

Webb visited Welch at Brighton and Hove Amateur Boxing club on Wednesday night (pictured above).