Carina Moreno

A California native, Carina Moreno was born on October 9, 1981 in Watsonville. She was introduced to the sport at a very young age, boxing with her cousin. She first started with kickboxing after enrolling in a cardio kickboxing class at the age of 18. She won two kickboxing bouts in 1999.

She decided to turn to boxing to get more competition. Under the tutelage of Rick Noble, she started boxing in January 2000. In April of the same year, she won her first boxing match at the USA Boxing Everlast National Championship defeating Catherine Herway and two-time defending champion Linda Carillo.

She entered the Open Division Semi-Finals of the 2000 US National/International Golden Gloves and 106-lb Moreno defeated Tisha Luna. She went on to get a 4-1 decision against Vaia Vargas. By now, she already had 10 wins in her amateur career. By 2001, the WBAN named her “Female Amateur Boxer of the Year” with wins in the 15th Annual Blue and Gold Invitational, the 2000 Police Athletic League Championships, the 2001 US National Golden Gloves competition, the Women’s Pan-American Boxing Championships and the AIBA World Amateur Championships.

With her strength and speed, her agent found it difficult to find professional boxers who would fight her so Moreno decided to go up the ladder into the 110-lb division. She won her first fight in this division against Cecilia “Boom-Boom” Barraza. She scored her first round TKO against Brittney Conan in September 2003. She went on to another TKO in November 2003 defeating Michelle Gatewood and a six-round win against Stephanie Dobbs in June 2004.

Moreno spent 2004 with wins against Diedre Hamaguchi, Maribel Ocasio and Yvonne Caples moving from 106 to 109 pound matches. By 2007, she started the year defeating Nanako Kikuchi of Japan earning the WBC Strawweight title. She ended the year with a win against Emily Kelly and Suszannah Warner. Her latest bout (June 2008) is another win against Eileen Olszewski earning her the IFBA and IBA Junior Flyweight titles.