I made deal with God as I lay dying after husband’s attack – I’m still trying to keep my end, says boxer Christy Martin
BOXING legend Christy Martin has revealed she made a deal with God as she lay dying after her husband’s brutal attack – and says she’s still trying to keep her end of the bargain.
The 56-year-old – nicknamed The Coal Miner’s Daughter because of her father’s job in West Virginia, where she grew up – was a pioneer in the ring.
She won 49 fights, with 32 by way of knockout, in a career that began in the late 1980s, and was represented by legendary promoter Don King.
However, behind the scenes manager James ‘Jim’ Martin, who she would marry in 1991, made her life a living hell by beating her physically and stripping her down mentally.
All the while, Christy, who is gay, was wrestling with her sexuality and identity in the macho world of her profession.
In 2010, Martin would attempt to take Christy’s life – repeatedly stabbing his wife, before shooting her in the chest.
Martin, who was 25 years Christy’s senior, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
He died last November, while serving his sentence at Graceville Correctional Facility in Florida.
Understandably, Christy’s astonishing story has caught the attention of Hollywood.
It’s not a boxing movie. It’s about domestic violence and it’s about sexuality. There’s so many different aspects and groups of people that this movie can affect
Christy Martin
A movie, directed by acclaimed Aussie filmmaker David Michod and starring actress of the moment Sydney Sweeney as Christy, wrapped in late 2024.
Netflix also chronicled the tale with a powerful documentary called Untold: Deal with the Devil released in 2021.
Speaking to SunSport, Christy, 56, told us: “To me, it’s the underdog story.
“It’s not a boxing movie. It’s about domestic violence and it’s about sexuality. There’s so many different aspects and groups of people that this movie can affect.
“The meaning behind the movie, for me, is don’t hide who you are – whatever it be, whatever makes you different. Be true to you.”
Christy admitted she was surprised, at first, by the casting of Hollywood superstar Sweeney.
“My first reaction was, ‘Wow, it kind of doesn’t fit,'” she said.
“But when I spoke with Sydney, I learned she actually has an MMA background. We had some great conversations.
“She is very much a competitor, like I was. I think this role will show people a whole other side to her they are not used to seeing.
“She’s very real and a completely normal person, not like some Hollywood people I have met in my life and throughout my boxing career.”
Christy met future hubby Jim when she was 22 and he was 47. She was an up and coming boxer, and he promised her the world by claiming he had contacts that could get her to the top of the tree.
They married in 1991, although it was a marriage of convenience. Before Jim, Christy was in relationships with women.
“I got involved with Jim by accident,” she said.
“It was one of those things, I was impressionable and young and he claimed he knew everyone in the boxing business.”
By the mid 1990s, Christy became a showbiz name in her own right.
She featured on the undercard for Mike Tyson’s pay-per-view fight against Frank Bruno, and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
There was even an appearance on classic US TV sitcom Roseanne.
But away from the public eye, she was under duress from Jim who controlled her every move.
That included trash-talking gay fighters, even though she was hiding her own past and sexuality.
Christy revealed: “Jim would encourage me to trash talk fighters who were gay.
“I would tell him, ‘You’re treading on thin ice because if I say something, then someone from my past might hear it and come out of the woodwork’.
“I would always tell him he was pushing me to walk a dangerous line.
“It could have come out at any point, at any time, and something could have exposed me. How would I have looked then?
“I was living two lives with what was going on in front of the camera and what was happening behind closed doors.
“We would argue about everything, at press conferences, at home. I got to the point where I would pick and choose my battles.”
Their blistering rows would often erupt into violence.
“Once he knocked my tooth through my lip when I tried to leave him,” Christy confessed.
“I had put a contract together to go our separate ways. I just wanted to live my life and go in a different direction. But I was his personal ATM. Without me what was he going to do?”
As their relationship further deteriorated, Christy began to get hooked on cocaine, which she used to ease her pain.
As he was beating my head into the dresser, I thought, ‘You know motherf***er, you are not going to kill me. Not today.’
Christy Martin
On November 23, 2010 it all came to a head. After spending a few days with her friend, Sherry Lusk, Christy returned to their Florida home to find an agitated Martin.
She recalled: “I had a headache, so I went to lay down in the bedroom. The entire time I’m laying down, I could hear Jim sharpening a knife.
“Then I overheard him talking on the phone, calling people up and telling them I left him for a woman.
“I got up and I was getting ready to go for a run. I put one shoe on and then he came into the bedroom.
“He said, ‘I have something to show you.’ I thought he had a boxing contract, but instead he had a knife and a gun.
“He started to stab me and cut me up and we got into a fight. In my mind, I was ready to die.
“But, as he was beating my head into the dresser, I thought, ‘You know motherf***er, you are not going to kill me. Not today.’
“It was like a switch just flipped and I wanted to live. When he cut me, he cut his own hand. And so he stopped beating me and went to clean up his own hand.
“I started to walk out the room. He came back in and picked up the gun. I said to him, ‘You don’t have the balls to shoot me.’
“But he did. He shot me and I remember I just prayed to God and asked for a way to get out.”
Christy was stabbed four times in the chest, her left lung was punctured, her left leg was sliced to the bone, and a bullet was lodged three inches from her heart.
Callous Martin left his wife for dead on the bedroom floor and went to have a shower.
“I heard the shower water turn on and that was God telling me it’s time, Christy, now’s the time. So I tried to get up, but blood was coming out of all these holes,” she said.
Miraculously, she managed to make it out of their condo, before flagging down a stranger who rushed her to a nearby hospital.
She survived her ordeal, as she believes, by the grace of God.
In the emergency room, as she recovered from her wounds, she was also able to kick her drug habit to the kerb.
“I had always been that athlete that said no to drugs,” she said.
“In college, you smoke weed in high school and college and stuff – but I said I was never going to get addicted.
“But cocaine became my drug of choice, and it was because I was so miserable with Jim. I was trying to find a happy place.
I had always been that athlete that said no to drugs
Christy
“Cocaine was putting me in that happy place, even though it was really killing me and putting me in a worse place. It was an escape every day for around three years.
“I quit because I wasn’t miserable anymore. I was free of Jim. I didn’t need that drug anymore.”
Christy is thankful to be alive to tell her story, which she hopes will help women who have been in similar situations to her.
“I made a deal with God in the hospital,” she told us.
“You know, you let me live through this and I promise you I’m going to help. I’m going to help at least one person every day so they don’t suffer what I went through.
“That’s why I keep talking about domestic violence because I gotta keep up my end of the bargain.”