On her way to breaking through barriers and becoming the pre-eminent female boxer of her era, Christy Martin had to possess a specific kind of courage whenever she stepped in the ring. Today, she’s displaying a different kind of moxie in allowing her deeply personal story to be told on the big screen. David Michod’s Christy recounts not only Martin’s professional career, but also that of her marriage to her trainer, James V. Martin. Their union was riddled with incidents of domestic violence, ending with his attempted murder of Martin, whom he stabbed repeatedly and shot once, leaving her for dead.
Martin was recently in Chicago to promote Christy, and I asked her how Michod convinced her that he was the one to tell her story.
“No. 1, David said, ‘This is not a boxing story,’ which was what I needed to hear,” she recounted. “I didn’t want anyone associated with this to think this is a sports movie. It’s a life movie. From day one, he knew it was about my life and said at times that boxing didn’t even factor into things. It’s about domestic violence, it’s about sexuality, it’s about overcoming. Boxing is just the backdrop. And that’s what sold me on David.”
Despite her international fame, I suggested that it would be a rather surreal experience to have your entire life played out before you. “It was humbling,” she said. “I have to remind people I’m a coal miner’s daughter from a town of 7,000 in southern West Virginia. My boxing career took me to a lot of cool places in this world. But to think that Sydney Sweeny is portraying me in this life movie is crazy. It’s hard to accept and adjust to that thought.”
While seeing the highs of her boxing career elicited a certain response, having to witness the incidents of domestic violence again had to be traumatic. I asked her how she dealt with that.
After a brief hesitation, she said, “It was difficult to focus on the fact that I am a domestic violence victim. It was hard to adjust to that thought. Watching it brought up a lot of emotions. Obviously, I had to be aware of the parts that might trigger me. I have to put up a little bit of a wall and watch it as if it happened to someone else. But Sydney Sweeney, Ben Foster, everyone in this movie gave so much respect to my life and so much encouragement to share my story so we could get it out there and change the world.”
As for the casting choice of the actress to portray her, Martin was initially taken aback. “They called me and said, ‘We have Sydney Sweeney on board,’ and I thought, ‘That’s interesting.’ I started googling everything on her and looking at her pictures and I thought, ‘How is she going to be me?’ She’s the “It Girl” right now. She was so committed. She gained 30 pounds, she went to the boxing gym, she learned some great moves, and she was also able to gain the focus and strength to portray the domestic violence victim who is the survivor.”
While the film will tell her story on screens around the world, Martin and her partner, Lisa Holewyne, work in other ways to spread the word about how to recover from incidents of domestic violence. “Together we have Christy’s Champs, which is my nonprofit for domestic violence victims,” Martin said. “We raise money to put computers in boxing gyms. We help people get from where they are to back home. If they need food or whatever they need, we try to help.”
She continued, “One of the big things, because of our love for boxing, is wanting to spread the word about domestic violence and offer people the way to explore other opportunities. We had a coach from one of the gyms where we put a computer in call us and tell us one of his boxers just submitted their college application on the computer, and that made us so happy.”
Making no small plans, the couple plan to expand their reach with an ambitious undertaking.
“We are getting ready to build a training center in Daytona, Florida, where we’ll train world-class boxers, but we are going to do charity work and raise awareness about issues,” Martin said. “We’ll have an event called Punching for Parkinson’s, domestic violence awareness classes, boxing groups for the survivors and reaching out to shelters nearby. At this point in my life, it’s about helping other people. I know God left me here to make a difference and that’s what we try to do every day, make a difference.”
A true champion, indeed.
