Women’s junior welterweight Samantha Worthington views boxing as a way to share her story – and she has more than enough experience with sustaining cuts to fill a chapter on it.
Worthington will return against Vaida Masiokaite in an eight-round bout on Sunday’s Claressa Shields-Danielle Perkins card which takes place at Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan. The bout will be streamed live on DAZN.
Worthington, 29, is the first fighter signed to Shields’ T-Rex Promotions and co-promoted by Dmitriy Salita’s Salita Promotions. For this camp, Worthington split time between Atlanta, where she trained with Shields and her trainer John David Jackson and Folsom, California where she works with her trainer, former professional boxer, Mike Guy. Worthington explained that both Guy and Jackson will be in her corner for this fight. Worthington will be returning after a six-round unanimous decision win over Jaica Pavilus in December.
“It’s been pretty seamless,” Worthington, 10-0 (7 KOs), said. “I fought in December. I was already in camp. I think of the fight in December as some hard public sparring.”
That “hard public sparring” Worthington referenced also opened a cut over her eye in the final round. It was the second time she had been cut after enduring a headbutt, in her third bout, that she describes as “busting her face open”.
“The doctor looked at my cut and because of how smooth it was, I was back in a week,” Worthington said. “The way that it is, it lines my eyebrow. It was not something that I really had to worry about because it is hidden in my eyebrow.”
During her latest camp, while working on occasion with Shields, Worthington learned another thing about herself – she has a championship mindset.
“It’s really just taught me about my championship mentality and confirmed that I have what it takes,” Worthington said of training with Shields.
Masiokaite, a 37-year-old from Lithuania, fought eight times in 2024, all against distinguished opponents. Masiokaite, 10-26-1 (1 KO) has spent the bulk of her career fighting in the United Kingdom. This will be her first fight in the United States.
Presuming Worthington makes it an unhappy American debut for the Lithuanian, what could be next?
“We’re definitely setting me up for a title fight, looking to do an interim WBA belt for the next fight,” Worthington said. “Seeing what’s going to happen with the belts towards the end of the year and hopefully get ordered to have a title fight either at the end of this year or early next year. But really, my main goal is just to keep collecting belts and ultimately to have a platform to share my story.”
Read the full article here
