Christy Martin biopic in preparation

Christy Martin is the one without whom women’s boxing would never have taken off. A huge champion in the ring, she suffered for a long time outside of it, under the influence of her trainer-turned-husband. Domestic violence, bloody drama, drug use: here is the tormented life of a boxer with incredible longevity, at a time when filming of her biopic began in Hollywood.

Netflix had already dedicated a documentary to this woman who, despite herself, led a double life for a long time. On the one hand, the glory of the boxing ring and the honors reserved for a pioneer. On the other, the fight she was waging against a man. Her personal trainer and husband. This documentary is called A boxer in hell and composes the series L’Envers du sport.

A movie in preparation

Christy Martin will soon be entitled to her biopic. The title has not yet been released and filming has only just begun in Hollywood. But the tone is already set. “His story is not light. It is physically and emotionally demanding. There’s a lot of weight to carry. But I like to challenge myself.”declared the one who will play the talented boxer, actress Sydney Sweeney, when announcing her role.

The words are similar from the director, David Michôd, to whom we owe Animal Kingdom. “I’m used to making films about damaged men and I wanted to make a film about a woman who has a fierce energy within her. When I discovered Christy Martin’s story two years ago, I knew I had found it,” Michôd said when the film was announced.

Under the influence of a man

Daughter of a miner, sexually abused by her cousin at the age of six, Christy Martin was not predestined to become a legend of the noble art. Her favorite discipline was initially basketball, a sport through which she obtained a scholarship. However, it was while participating in amateur boxing competitions when she came of age – without the slightest experience before her first official in a ring – that the young woman was spotted by a promoter then entrusted to a coach: Jim Martin.

The latter did not take kindly to his debut in his training group, at a time – the early 90s – when women’s boxing had not yet taken off. Annoyed, he asked one of his boxers to break his ribs in training, so as to push him towards the exit door. However, faced with the resistance of this woman of 1m63 and 63 kilos, he quickly detected her potential and her financial value.

Jim Martin, 24 years her senior, then placed the West Virginia boxer under his influence. He took her away from her family and other managers, and launched her professionally in 1991, at the age of 21. The coach convinced her to marry him two years later and she accepted, only because she was convinced that a traditional life would avoid problems for her, she says today with some hindsight. The boxer feared that her interest in women would disrupt her early career.

Pioneer in the field of women’s boxing

If Christy admits to having been afraid of Jim from the first day of their union, they professionally formed one of the best boxer-trainer pairs in the history of the noble art. Her husband made her a formidable fighter, winning a series of knockout victories. Martin signed a contract with Don King in 1994, a pact allowing him to perform regularly in Las Vegas. This is the first time that the famous American promoter has concluded an agreement with a woman. However, it was only two years later that Christy Martin’s career took on another dimension.

The pugilist faced Irishwoman Deirdre Gogarty on the Vegas Strip before the eyes of all of America, awaiting the main fight of the evening: that of Mike Tyson for the WBC heavyweight title. But the duel was epic. He surprised the public because he was fierce, powerful and technically precise. Christy Martin won with a bloodied face.

Christy Martin then became lightweight champion, but above all, the most famous and most prominent fighter in the United States. The one that legitimized the participation of women in a sport initially reserved for men. The boxer was featured in the magazine Time and made the front page of Sports Illustrated. Never before had a boxer received such attention. His fee went from $15,000 to $150,000.

Double life and descent into hell

The champion continued her career and multiplied her successes, always with ease. She dominated her opponents until her early thirties. But she then lost her splendor and her contract in Vegas. Christy Martin was less present in the rings and gradually experienced the taste of defeat. The blows suffered hurt him at least as much as falling back into a certain anonymity. The boxer then faced depressive episodes, especially as she continued to hide her sexual orientation. Worse, she was beaten by her husband. “I have never been knocked out, except by Jim,” she once confided to Sports Illustrated. She also says she suffered sexual and psychological violence, far from what her life could have imagined. He had promised to kill the woman who was his companion and source of income if she were to leave him.

Christy Martin drowned himself in cocaine and snorted in training so he could put on the gloves and get in the ring. Resigned, she thought about ending her life several times, with a gun in her mouth, the only option to escape her ordeal. However, the pugilist regained hope by reconnecting on Facebook with her high school girlfriend. She quit drugs, announced to Jim her intention to divorce and once spent a night with the woman she had seen in the past. It was in 2010, a year after winning the WBC super-welterweight title at the age of 41.

A death narrowly avoided

Jim waited for him, sharp knife in his hands. And when she returned the next day, after that night spent at the hotel, he stabbed her. Three times, at chest level. Her husband also had a cut on his leg. He beat her and shot her with his 9 millimeter, 10 centimeters from the heart. Jim left her for dead. He then went into the bathroom to clean himself of the blood on his hands. But Christy managed to get up and left her home. Once outside, a motorist took him to the hospital.

The husband was sentenced two years later to 25 years in prison for “attempted second-degree murder and battery with a deadly weapon.” “It’s made of granite. You hit her with a hammer, she stands there looking at you,” he said one day in prison.

Determined to fight, Christy Martin née Salters returned to training only eight days after the outpouring of hatred from her husband. She returned to competition six months later under her maiden name, at almost 43 years old. The boxer put up an honorable fight, but she was stopped against her will in the last round, a few seconds from the decision, by a doctor suspecting a broken hand. He was right.

Nine fractures required surgery. But once finished, followed by a stroke. The pugilist had to hide it from the boxing world, so as not to lose her chances of getting back into the ring, and above all, not to discredit herself with her opponents. Christy regained his abilities and, against the advice of doctors, offered himself a final fight. The one that could allow him to glean a fiftieth career victory. But she lost by decision. This confrontation, one too many, still played tricks on him in 2016. Double vision and limited endurance.

The American was therefore satisfied with a remarkable record of 49 victories including 31 by KO, 7 defeats and 3 draws. She is now married to Lisa Holewyne, a boxer against whom she fought in the past. She owns her company and promotes boxing events.

Christy Martin Salters now lives peacefully. She has never been happier, after two decades of chasing a dream that became a nightmare. It is therefore this life which, soon, certainly in 2026, will be screened in cinemas and played by Sydney Sweeney.