Amaris “Diamond Girl” Quintana Stays Busy

San Diego light flyweight Amaris Quintana (7-2-2, 2KOs) is just glad to be back in the ring. After earning her last win in early April over Susan Reno of San Diego, the “Diamond Girl” is back in the ring a mere sixty days since her last fight, he fastest turn-around of her career since her first two fights back in 2009.

“That is the plan, trying to stay active and get as many fights in 2014,” Quintana shared. “Hopefully we can get back to another title shot at 105 or 108 pounds but first we have to stay busy.”

In October of 2013 Quintana got a taste of a world title bout when she challenged current IFBA light flyweight champion Sindy Amador of Riverside. Quintana fell short via a closely contested ten-round unanimous decision. The championship fight was a rematch of their first face-off back in the spring of 2012 which Amador also took with a unanimous decision. Those two losses are the only ones in Quintana’s record.

“I was prepared but not to the point where I wanted to be,” Amaris says of her second fight against Amador. “That half a year layoff held me back but I still went in there and gave it my best.”

As Quintana partly credits inactivity for that loss, that is why staying active is so important for the twenty-four year old fighter. “It keeps me motivated. It makes me train harder knowing I have a fight and it makes me stay in the gym.”

In her last fight, Quintana went the full limit of six tough rounds with New York’s Susan Reno. Her first fight back in her hometown after nearly twenty-four months, Quintana used her legs as she moved in and out well and made it a point to make her right hand her weapon of choice during the fight. Reno followed suit and looked to score with her own set of right hands but Quintana’s were much quicker and harder. Quintana was successful at staying out of range and only coming inside to score left hooks to the body coupled with over hand rights. Reno had success in the fifth to score with straight punches but Quintana landed with combos that ended with even more accurate rights.

“She was a tough girl. She could really take a punch and I know that for a fact,” Quintana said of her last opponent. “It was a good fight, a tough fight. It felt good to be back in the ring. I had a great reception from the hometown crowd and that was nice. I was able to show my aggressive side in the fight and some of the things we had been working on in the gym.”

After her last fight Quintana found herself right back at the Bound Boxing Gym in Chula Vista sparring with former world champion Kelsey Jeffries and star amateur Andrea Medina in preparation for her second fight of the year.

“I want to keep moving forward, working hard and getting ready for what is next,” Quintana said of her plans for the rest of 2014. “I want to fight as many times as I can this year.”