Long Island native, Marine veteran Peter Latorre chasing his boxing title dream with gift thats in the blood

Peter Latorre is beating all enemies, foreign and domestic.The 28-year-old Marine veteran from Elmont is a weapon of mass destruction in the boxing ring — and he’s off to a hot start at 6-0 with victories at major venues like New Jersey’s Prudential Center and Madison Square Garden’s theater.“All of which came by knockout,” Latorre, a 5-foot-10, 147-pound welterweight told The Post.“Combat 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’re scared.”The Long Island contender — he’s ranked top 30 in the United States and top 100 worldwide — has earned the admiration of women’s featherweight world champion Amanda Serrano while on a mission beyond just bolstering the win column.Latorre comes from a long lineage of soldiers and is earning his master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling and licensed mental health counseling at Hofstra.He plans on working with struggling veterans as a day job while pursuing a fight title.“I’ve seen PTSD, substance abuse.My father is a recovering addict.

I saw what war does to family,” he said.“So to be able to sit across from another veteran that went through something similar, I think I’d be able to assist them.”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.“Some casualties — there was a helicopter crash,” he recalled.Latorre is called “Voodoo” — and fittingly enters the ring to Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” — from a nickname given to his grandfather, Luis, by comrades and Army infantrymen in Vietnam.The tough-knuckled Luis received a Bronze Star, Purple Heart — and the inescapable funky nickname — after surviving a Viet Cong ambush that wiped out 85 percent of his platoon.He died in 2009 from Agent Orange exposure during the war.“...