About the only thing Tiffany Perez will admit to quitting is cheerleading.

Actually not a bad choice.

Today, as a boxer, she trains with one goal in mind -- the U.S. Olympics.

This 19-year-old Purdue University Calumet student who once hated cheerleading grew up knowing contact sports.

She watched her older brother, Jimmy Perez Jr., box in Hammond and her father teach karate school for over 20 years.

Now after a few punches to the face, Perez is been doing the hitting, winning her third straight Chicago Golden Gloves championship belt last April. She won in a second round TKO over Tiffany Griffin.

Perez won her weight class in the U.S. Championship Regionals in competition May 23-25 in Akron, Ohio, advancing her to the U.S. Championship Nationals in Denver. Nationals begin the week of June 8.

Her mom, Aida Perez, said Tiffany did "extremely good" - so good that her competitor in the finals "walked out and didn't want to fight her."

"My hard work paid off," Perez said.

Her goals won't end in Colorado.

Perez hopes to become one of the first women to compete in 2012, if womens boxing is recognized as an Olympic sport. The 2012 competition set in London.

"(Boxing) is getting more popular," Perez said. "There are girls -- in my opinion, and other people's opinion as well -- that girls box better than some of the boys.

"We do the same things boys do and we train as hard so why not be recognized as much as they are? It would be a big step for the females."

Perez has fought another battle, asthma, since she was 5. It's why she's majoring in biology at PUC. Someday, she'd like to become a pediatric asthma specialist.

"I was always watching my doctors when I was little and I said I wanted to do what they do -- help kids with asthma like me," Perez said.