“It’s just about mental fortitude and getting the job done,” he said on Jan. 5. “I had two training sessions today and I just got done training now. I had to wake up an hour early to shovel my car out and shovel my wife’s car out so I could get to training in the morning. I keep a shovel in my car just in case I had to shovel my spot out in front of the gym. So it’s that extra little mindset of getting the job done is what I think translates in a fight.”
It’s nice to train in Florida, California or Las Vegas. Great gyms, great weather, and everything else you can think of. But training in New England adds a layer of difficulty, especially in the winter. Guys like Bochniak are used to it, so they don’t think about it much until the topic is brought up. And when it is discussed, he can laugh, knowing how it may look to the outside world that he works in real old school gyms that aren’t exactly trying to overwhelm their clients with amenities. In other words, there’s no juice bar in Peter Welch’s Gym.
“No juice bar,” laughs Bochniak. “Maybe some hand sanitizer, but that’s it.”
In gyms like Welch’s, or at Broadway Jiu-Jitsu, the fight is the thing, and to get ready to fight, you work.
RELATED: UFC 220: Fight by Fight | On The Rise: UFC 220
“You’re working, no outside stuff and you’re done when you’re done,” said Bochniak, who embraces every minute of it. “You just get that vibe that it’s time to put in work. I really have that mindset all the time about getting my work in, getting the job done, pushing my limits and going home and sitting on the couch and going, ‘Damn, I put work in today,’ and I feel good about that. It’s more of a gritty, New England mindset. Shoveling out your spot, getting to the gym, nose down, do what you have to do to get to your job, whatever it is. Gas man, mailman, anything. You’re nose down, gritty and you get the job done. And for an athlete, it’s good to be humbled when you walk through the doors.”
This weekend, Bochniak steps into the Octagon for the fourth time, two years after his short notice debut against Charles Rosa in the same TD Garden that he will fight in against Davis. In his first three bouts, he’s won once and lost twice, this, after a 6-0 start to his pro career. It’s been an up and down ride, but he’s determined to make it all up from here on out.
