‘I’m a fighter.’ Lexington boxer credits faith as she enters pros with first-round win
After winning her first professional fight in the first round, there’s no denying that Lexington boxer Samantha “Sammy” Kinchen has power in the ring. The trick, her coach says, is training her to rein in that power.
During a training session at HITS Fitness in Lexington this month, Kinchen’s coach, James Doolin, reminded the 24-year-old that she’s trying to be a 10-round fighter. As she launched one blow after another into Doolin’s mitts, he told her she’d “die in six” if she didn’t learn to save her power for the right punches.
On Nov. 2, Kinchen appeared to strike that balance when she beat El Paso boxer Karina Mendoza in under three minutes. Since that first fight at The Bourbon Hall in Louisville, promoter Troy Eskridge, Sr., said he keeps getting calls asking about Kinchen.
It was Kinchen’s first time fighting in a professional match, but the feelings before stepping in the ring were familiar. She’d experienced the anxiety, excitement and adrenaline plenty of times since first putting on boxing gloves at age 12.
Kinchen is no stranger to high-stakes fights, either. She won five National Championships as an amateur boxer, took home bronze at the Youth World Championships, fought for Team USA and came in fifth for the Olympic qualifying trials in 2016.
‘She’s a mean woman’
Though Kinchen described her first professional match as “another day in the office,” it was different.
In the professional world, a boxer’s face is an exposed target for punches, Kinchen said. In the past, protected by headgear, getting hit had given her a boost in adrenaline, she said.
“There was that piece of me in the back of my head that was like, ‘you don’t have headgear this time,’” Kinchen said. “So you’ve got to be more aware of getting hit, because my coach says that I like getting hit.”
Ultimately, Kinchen felt training with her coach had prepared her to take the next step in her boxing career.
“This is what I’m created to do, and I know that Jesus is going to protect me in the ring, so I didn’t really have anything to worry about,” Kinchen said.
A worship leader at her church, Kinchen said she feels God put her on the path of boxing. Doolin said that faith gives her an edge.
“Jesus gives her the strength, gives her the attitude,” Doolin said. “She’s a mean woman; she’d make a good Navy SEAL.”
There was a time when Kinchen had no interest in becoming a boxer. Her younger brother was obsessed with the “Rocky” movies as a kid. She hung around as he trained, and people at the gym finally convinced her to try.
“I was sparring this guy, because there was not really any other girls in the gym, and we were just using one hand,” Kinchen said. “He was kind of hitting me, seeing if I could take it ... The first time I hit him, his head snapped back, he goes, ‘oh shoot,’ and then after that, I was hooked.”
Boxers can’t just be bullies
Doolin, 74, of Louisville has been training Kinchen for about four years. While they sometimes train in Lexington, Kinchen often travels to Louisville to work with Doolin at Louisville Legends Gym.
“She used to fight like a bully,” Doolin said. “She is a bully, she hurts people. And then I said, ‘you need to learn the sweet science, because there is one.’”
Kinchen acknowledges that she shares her brother’s view that hitting people without getting in trouble is a perk, but her driving force in boxing goes beyond that.
“I love the science behind it and the art,” she said. “It’s not just a combat sport where it’s just blood, sweat and tears and you’re just going to kill somebody. There’s an aspect of that in the sport where it’s aggressive and it can be bloody. But it’s also beautiful.”
Kinchen knew boxing was a sport she wanted to pursue, but she didn’t immediately know what a boxing career looked like.
Before she was in high school, Kinchen had been involved in several sports. But in the summer between her junior and senior years at Henry Clay High School, she won her first national championship and dived completely into boxing.
“I just got a lot of success really quickly, and I just saw how the lord could use the sport to, one glorify his name ultimately, but then also to just kind of give myself a life,” Kinchen said. Kinchen was recently engaged and hopes she’ll earn enough money for her family.
Like most professional boxers, Kinchen said she has her eye on the World Championships.
“To have that belt around your waist, and to have multiple belts in multiple different weight classes, that’s definitely the ultimate goal,” Kinchen said.
Boxing is supporting Kinchen in multiple ways. When she’s not training for her next fight, she trains others in boxing for fitness at HITS Fitness. Through her classes, she’s able to use the sport she loves to help people find confidence and achieve their goals, she said.
Draining boxing lifestyle requires discipline
It can be a draining lifestyle that requires discipline. Before Kinchen steps into the ring to train with her coach, she will often have already taught three boxing classes earlier in the day.
There are no days off. While she was amateur boxing, she thought about giving up many times, she said.
“There were tons of times where I felt defeated, just physically, emotionally, mentally, and that’s kind of where I had to go back to my ‘why’ ... and I had to continue to reiterate that to myself, like this is who I’m created to be,” Kinchen said.
She stepped away from boxing for a time after the Olympic trials in 2016, but boxing always pulled her back in.
“When you dodge that punch and you counter with another one, it’s going to sound really weird, but when you feel that girl’s face on your fist, there’s really nothing like it,” Kinchen said.
Kinchen recalled a recent conversation with a church member that summed up boxing’s appeal what keeps her coming back to the sport.
“I was talking to him about places here on earth that I feel the most at home, and that’s really the only way I can describe the feeling that I have in the ring, it just feels like home,” Kinchen said. “It feels like this is what the lord has created me to do, to be a fighter. I am a fighter, and that’s kind of my identity here on earth.”
Kinchen’s next professional fight is set for Jan. 11 at The Bourbon Hall in Louisville.
