Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron Quintana.
Aaron, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started in martial arts at the age of 16. At the time I was living in Veracruz, Mexico and I was more invested on playing soccer than anything else. I wanted to pursue a career that could allow me to stay within that industry, but one day I decided to try a Boxing class since my grandfather got to have a short stint in Boxing when he was young. His excitement and admiration for the sport made me want to give it a try and from that moment on, I fell in love with combat sports. After that, I got obsessed with Boxing, and I wanted to learn as much as possible and possibly make it a career. Unfortunately, in Mexico, when you wanna start a Boxing career almost at 16 years old, you’re considered too old for a Boxing career; most guys start since they’re kids and get build into it. In the next few months, I felt discouraged because my goals looked far and out of reach.
Shortly after that, it was the early 2000’s, I started watching a UFC fight between Nick Diaz vs Robbie Lawler on the internet. I came across the video by accident. At the time, I didn’t fully understand what was happening during the fight because MMA was something new to me, but I knew that I wanted to be capable of doing what this gentlemen were doing in front of thousands, they looked like modern-day gladiators, and that’s all it took to get me hooked. Unfortunately, I had 2 problems: one, my mom was 100% against it. she was never a big of fan of combat sports and she didn’t think that was a way to earn a living. And number two, there wasn’t any academies or schools where I lived where I could learn and train MMA, so I had to be patient and I knew in the future if the opportunity presented, I was gonna take it and run with it.
Many years passed and when I finally turned 21, I moved to the US in 2012. I started college and eventually got me an Associate’s in Accounting, but I still felt my life wasn’t in the path it was supposed to be. After I was done with my associates, one weekend I was watching TV and to my luck, there were some UFC fights on. As soon as I watched the first minute of the first fight of the night, it’s like all those memories and all that fire I used to feel the first time I saw it came back. I remembered the promise I had made to myself and that same day I started to look for gyms that I could join and train. I knew I was in a place where I could accomplish that if I put my mind and soul into it. Since that day, I took on the challenge and never looked back. During my time I had been able to train with great fighters and had the opportunity to learn from great coaches. I moved to Dallas 4 years ago to keep pursuing my fighting career and take it to the next level. I was fortunate enough to find a great coach in Sayif Saud and teammates at Fortis MMA that are helping me in this journey. I was also very fortunate to meet Marcus Antelante through coach Sayif to sharpen and expand my Jiu-Jitsu abilities.
Last year, with all the pandemic situation and me being tired of working 9-5 jobs to support my career, I finally decided to start my own teaching. I decided it was time to start passing along all the great things I’ve learned throughout this time. I found a great home at Self Made Training Facility Dallas to start my own program in MMA and fitness and also to start expanding our student base. I’m still actively competing and I plan on keep passing along this knowledge in Martial Arts and combat sports to all those who can benefit from it.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
The road is being full of ups and downs. I’ve learned that in life if something is worth doing, there’s gonna be a bumpy road ahead. I’d say that in this line of work if you’re serious about making it to the top, there’s gonna be plenty sacrifices to make along the way. One of my main challenges is learning to walk the road alone, because the path gets lonely the higher you wanna go. You learn delayed gratification and the value of discipline and hard work. When I came to the US and started training, I had no family nearby, but the bright side is that friends became family. Holding crazy jobs, waking up at 5 am to hit a workout at 6 am and then go work a 12-14 hrs. shift, then going back at night for more training; adapting to a crazy schedule so I can have time for my training. Working in rain, snow, heat you name it. Sometimes work would be scarce where I was living, so even finding the means to satisfy basic living needs could become a challenge in certain seasons, even getting the right amount of food to keep your body fueled for hard training. I basically had to adapt every aspect of my life so my training and preparation always came first, regardless of the situations that were happening around me.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Quintana Combat & Fitness is THE PLACE that can help you get into your best shape physically and mentally while learning self-defense skills. We focus in using and practicing the most efficient disciplines in Mixed Martial Arts, namely Muay Thai, Boxing, Wrestling & Jiu-Jitsu. We also help people improve their fitness with strength and conditioning sessions that focus on functional strength, which is the kind of movements we perform in our daily lives. Our focus is to teach you these skills not only for you to learn how to fight and defend yourself, but also to help you become a better father, mother, brother, sister, friend, and neighbor. Martial Arts has the capacity to teach anybody that is willing to put in the work the value of discipline, humility, courage, self-esteem, confidence, and friendship. Our focus is to build up people in the most important aspects of their life, and Martial Arts has been proven to be efficient when it comes to this. Our facility is state-of-the-art, fully equipped to help our members take advantage of every opportunity.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
My advice is to surround yourself with people that is after the same things as you. Somebody that challenges you to get out of your comfort zone. Find a role model that has accomplished the things you wanna accomplish and learn from them, they’ve done it before so there’s a great chance, you’ll learn what you need to learn. Get a mentor that is willing to tell you the truth about where you at and where you wanna be, even if you don’t like it. Don’t hang around “YES MEN”, those kind of people don’t really care about your success, just how they can benefit from you. Above everything, keep a student mindset and an open mind, leave your ego aside.
Pricing:
- Month-To-Month Membership: $200/month
- Law Enforcement Discount Available 15% off
- Veteran Discounts Available 15% off
Contact Info:
- Email: quintanacombatfit@gmail.com
- Website: quintanacombat.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quintanacombatfit/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075146805635
Image Credits
Jesse Goode
