Christy Martin began her fighting career winning three consecutive titles in ‘Toughwoman’ contests. She launched her professional boxing career with a six-round draw against Angela Buchanan in 1989, winning the rematch one month later with a KO in round two. Christy went on to win 19 consecutive matches.
Christy, nicknamed the “Coal Miners Daughter,” started training with boxing coach and husband James Martin in 1991. After the couple moved to Florida, Christy became the first woman to sign with Don King, and debuted in Las Vegas, NV, in 1994. Two years later she rose to fame as the lightweight women’s champion of the world, earning her a place on the Sports Illustrated cover and an immediate pay increase from $15,000 to $150,000 per fight.
Christy’s stardom continued until her first KO loss to Laila Ali in 2003, followed by a string of more losses and festering personal turmoil that would soon come to a head.
“Boxing was the best therapy I could find,” Salters told Sports Illustrated in 2016. “That’s where I felt the safest.”
In 2010, Christy was stabbed repeatedly and shot by her husband James Martin after years of abuse. The gunshot missed her heart by only 4 inches. Against all odds, Christy miraculously survived. James was convicted of attempted 2nd-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
After everything she had gone through, Christy wasn’t ready to give up boxing yet, and 193 days after almost losing her life she re-entered the ring only to have her trainer stop the fight when it was clear her hand was broken. She subsequently suffered a stroke, officially ending her career in 2012. She had to fight another long road to recovery, eventually taking up work as a substitute teacher and aiding military veterans in finding employment.
Christy spoke on Capitol Hill in support of the Protecting Domestic Violence and Stalking Victims Act in 2013. “If that’s why I had to go through what I did, to help save other people,” she says, “that’s O.K. with me. I made it, and so many people do not.”
Christy was the first female boxer to be inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame in 2016, and she was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020.