Sydney Sweeney To Star in Biopic About Chaotic Life of Boxer Christy Martin

Christy Martin should have died that night.While lying in a hospital bed, barely conscious, with tubes and stitches covering her body and her life slipping away, Christy Martin — dubbed the Coal Miner’s Daughter — made a pact with God.“I made a deal that if he let me live, I would try to help as many people as I possibly can,” Ms. Martin tells The New York Sun. “I started by wanting to help at least one person before I die. Then I got pretty arrogant and said one person every day.”That is why the 57-year-old women’s boxing Hall of Famer, a domestic violence survivor, is excited about “Christy,” a soon-to-be released biopic about her life starring award-winning actress Sydney Sweeney. Directed by David Michôd and written by Mr. Michôd and Mirrah Foulkes, the film chronicles Ms. Martin’s rise to the top of women’s professional boxing in the 1990s and her husband’s attempt to murder her by stabbing and shooting her in 2010.The film by Black Bear Pictures made its premiere to a standing ovation at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival in September and had its Los Angeles debut on Saturday before being released in theaters on November 7.“That’s the whole thing with this movie, the different groups this movie will help,” Ms. Martin, a powerful spokeswoman on domestic violence, sexuality issues, and substance abuse, said. “I really think it’s going to be one of those movies that is going to be around for a long time and make a difference.”It should be a knockout. Ms. Martin first learned Ms. Sweeney was part of the project during a Zoom call almost two years ago. “Everybody knows Sydney Sweeney as the sexy, hot, ‘it girl’ in Hollywood right now,” Ms. Martin said. “I thought, ‘How is she going to play me?’ But she 100 percent got serious about the role.”Ms. Sweeney transformed her body by gaining about 30 to 35 pounds and training daily with boxing coach Matt Baiamonti, a protégé of Muhammad Ali’s famed trainer, Angelo Dundee. When it was time for filming, Ms. Sweeney sought Ms. Martin’s ring expertise and kept her close to critique fight scenes.“She’s so down to earth,” Ms. Martin said. “She’s such a big star. You don’t know what you’re going to get. But she’s always listening, like if I say something about throwing a left hook and getting a little bit more butt behind it. She made me feel comfortable and part of the moment.”Ms. Martin’s journey from a small town in West Virginia to a trailblazer in women’s boxing is a movie on its own. At a time when men ruled, Ms. Martin created space for herself after being signed by Don King in 1993. The high-haired boxing promoter saw a potential market for women’s boxing and liked Ms. Martin’s confidence. He also liked her moniker, “The Coal Miner’s Daughter,” in reference to her father’s occupation.Mr. King quickly built her name by putting Ms. Martin on the undercards of pay-per-view headliners like Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, and Felix Trinidad. Her rock ’em, sock ’em style proved a crowd pleaser and the Coal Miner’s Daughter landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1996 after a bloody battle with Diedre Gogarty on the undercard of a championship fight between Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno.“The Lady is a Champ,” read the SI cover, but at home she was a punching bag. At age 22, Ms. Martin married her 47-year-old manager-trainer James “Jim” Martin in 1991. She would later reveal Mr. Martin was emotionally and physically abusive throughout their relationship and enabled her addiction to cocaine.After reconnecting with her high school girlfriend, Ms. Martin asked for a divorce in November 2010. Days later Mr. Martin stabbed her several times in the chest and cut her left leg almost to the bone. He then took Ms. Martin’s pink 9 mm handgun and shot her in the chest.Thinking Ms. Martin was dead, Mr. Martin took a shower. Despite blood squirting from her stab wounds, she managed to drag herself out of the house, flag down a passing driver, and make it to the emergency room, where she made her pact with God.Watching Ms. Sweeney re-enact those dark moments “are tougher than others,” Ms. Martin said. People will see what’s in the movie, but there was so much more pain she endured. “People see the movie and get affected by what they see, but I remember what the whole situation was around those scenes and sometimes those scenes are harder than others,” she said.In April 2012, Jim Martin was convicted of attempted second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He died in 2024 while serving his sentence.The boxing scenes are the fun part of the movie. Ms. Sweeney said having Ms. Martin on set was “a powerful” and sometimes intimidating experience.“I’ve never had the person who I’m portraying watch me,” Ms. Sweeney said at the Hamptons International Film Festival, where she accepted the Achievement in Acting award for her work in the movie. “You’re never really sure what they’re thinking. But as it went on, I just wanted her there the entire time because I was able to study her and listen to her and have her thoughts and opinions there whenever I needed.”Since retiring from the ring, Ms. Martin married a former ring rival, Lisa Holewyne, in 2017 and promotes boxing events in North Carolina, Florida, and elsewhere in the southern United States. Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020, the first year women were on the ballot, she also serves as a fight analyst for Don King Productions.“If it weren’t for Don King I wouldn’t be doing this movie,” Ms. Martin said. “I would have still been a fighter, and the same thing would have happened to me, but I wouldn’t have the platform to speak about domestic violence, sexuality, drug addiction, and all those things if I weren’t Christy Martin the boxer promoted by Don King.”The 25-foot poster in Times Square of Sydney Sweeney playing “Christy” is “way cool,” Ms. Martin said. And she’s hoping the movie will lead to more opportunities for her to advocate and help women in need of her voice. She’s spoken at schools, shelters, and prisons.“To me, the movie is about self-strength,” she said. “I’m the ultimate underdog. But if I can rise to the top of boxing, anyone can achieve their dreams, whether it’s becoming a doctor, lawyer or an astronaut. And if I can get up off the floor after being knocked down, so can they.”

Sydney Sweeney To Star in Biopic About Chaotic Life of Boxer Christy Martin

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