Christine Renea Salters rose to fame while fighting in the ring as Christy Martin and was also the first woman to be elected into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020.
She was also nicknamed “the Coal Miner’s Daughter” in reference to her father’s job, and began her pursuit in sports in West Virginia. She became a world champion while competing from 1989 to 2012 and she held the World Boxing Council’s female super welterweight title in 2009.
Christy finished her career with a record of 49 wins. Thirty-one of them were from a knockout. Privately she was constantly pitted against her coach and husband Jim Martin, who nearly killed her. Her various trials and tribulations have been depicted in a revealing book, a Netflix documentary and a feature film.
The out and proud lesbian she is today exists in stark contrast to the person Sydney Sweeney depicts in Christy. She married Lisa Holewyne in 2017 and runs a not for profit foundation called Christy’s Champs to support victims of domestic abuse.
Now an empowered survivor, Christy sat down to tell more of her story at a recent visit to the Windy City.
Windy City Times: Did your story come out as a book first?
Christy Salters Martin: The way thing everything happened is I did the Netflix documentary Untold: Deal with the Devil first in 2021. The book Fighting for Survival: My Journey Through Boxing Fame, Abuse, Murder, and Resurrection was written with Ron Borges in 2022. He wrote for The Boston Globe and he was a boxing writer as well. Now the movie is coming out in 2025.
WCT: Christy premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. I was at the movie studio brunch the day after it debuted with Sydney Sweeney and Katy O’Brian. Did you attend the brunch?
CSM: I was there briefly, but I am really shy and don’t like to go to things like that. When I got to the brunch, I was all by myself because my friends had all left to return to the United States. Since they extended my stay so I could attend the brunch, I came for a little while.
WCT: I really bonded with Katy and we talked about Indiana where she is from.
CSM: It’s a small world because her father is in Indianapolis. He goes to a gym that is owned by someone that I know and have done business with for over 30 years.
WCT: Why did you feel Sydney Sweeney was the right person to portray you?
CSM: They came to me and said Sydney wanted to take the role on. I was in shock and didn’t think we looked anything alike.
I wasn’t sure how she would be, but she kicked ass. She went in the gym and picked up boxing moves. During the domestic abuse scenes she has the right attitude and look. She did a hell of a job.
WCT: Your manager James Martin was 25 years older than you when you were dating. Wasn’t that a red light even before his narcissism?
CSM:Yes. He was also a sex addict and a sexual deviant. I felt that my mother pushed that relationship to make it happen because they didn’t want me to be gay. They wanted me to be with Jim who is older than my dad. We were married almost 20 years.
WCT: Do you think Jim was abused when he was younger?
CSM: His background was complicated and he lied when the truth fit better. Now I sit and wonder what was the truth.
WCT: What goes through your mind when you are boxing in the ring?
CSM: As a fighter I wanted to be the best. If I am told I can’t do something then I am going to do it or I will die. It’s about the drive to be the best that kept me in boxing for too long.
WCT: So you are focused on moves and your mind doesn’t wander?
CSM: Right.
WCT: Was the name Sherry changed to Rosie in the movie?
CSM: The Rosie character is a combination of people with my high school girlfriend being one of them. For all of the Sherry Lusk negative talk I could spew, she did stay by me during that time after I was shot and stabbed. I had a stroke after the fight shown in the movie. I broke my hand during the fight and when they fixed it, I had a stroke. We had decided to split up, but she was going to stay with me until after the fight. When I had the stroke, she stayed longer than we had originally planned.
I have mixed feelings about her being omitted from the movie because she stayed there when she didn’t have to.
WCT: Many of people in the queer community have conflicted relationships with their religious parents. Can you talk about your relationship with your mother?
CSM: Absolutely. She couldn’t come to grips with me being gay and she wanted to blame everything on it, including me being shot. Until the day she died, she blamed Sherry.
WCT: Your dog Champ is here. Why are Pomeranians your favorite?
CSM: His name was Casey in the movie. There were 23 years between Casey and Champ. I kept saying no to getting another dog because I travel so much. A doctor even wrote a letter that I needed a dog and God blessed me with Champ.
I do love Pomeranians even though Lisa is more a big dog person, but she loves Champ now.
WCT: Did you ever want to have children?
CSM: Yes. I wanted to have twins and they had to be boys. There are twins on my side of the family and in Jim’s family as well. I was not able to take time off to have them and since there were no guarantees on twins I didn’t do it.
WCT: Do you have longtime injuries that you still suffer from?
CSM: When I had the stroke, I had vision issues after that. It might look like I am winking at you but I am not. It’s because I have double vision.
The longtime effects are from the stroke which is not from the boxing, but from having my hand fixed.
WCT: Did you have cognitive problems from the stroke?
CSM:When I woke up from the surgery I couldn’t walk, talk or see. I have pretty much recovered but I do battle with my vision and get tired easily. It can be hard for me to think of the words to say. The words are there but I can’t think sometimes or stay focused.
WCT: How many times have you watchedChristy?
CSM: Last night was the third time.
WCT: Is it triggering for you to watch it?
CSM: The first time I saw it was at the financier’s house, Black Bear Pictures. The music wasn’t it and some of the little effects weren’t done at that time. I watched it, but it didn’t sink in. In Toronto it hit me and last night I watched it but was less affected by it.
For the future I am not going to watch it every time I am sent some place and I will just show up afterwards for the Q & A.
WCT: When comparing the documentary to the feature film, there are differences. Laila Ali was a fan of yours in real life.
CSM: True, but we couldn’t show Laila gushing about me in the movie.
WCT: Yes, but it’s an important fact to know about her. Mike Tyson’s perspective was another thing highlighted in the doc.
CSM: Look, Mike Tyson is not a bad dude.
WCT: I agree and have interviewed him. It would have been challenging to give him a bigger part inChristy.
CSM: He might come to the LA premiere. He is doing his one man show again, so he might not be in town. He was supportive about me coming out of the closet.
WCT: What would you like to say to the LGBTQ+ community about your journey?
CSM:When I said nasty things about the community it was Jim Martin telling me I had to say all of that. I had to pick and choose my battles. After a while I wouldn’t say what he wanted but then I had to go back and fight with him about not saying derogatory comments. It was easier for me to just say it then go back and battle him.
I would like to ask the LGBTQ+ community for forgiveness of my being an asshole. I would also tell Jim that there’s a reason for anyone who acts so homophobic 99 percent of the time. I believe that.
He would tell me to say things and I knew he was just inviting people from my past to show up with a picture. We didn’t have phone cameras back then, but there were pictures around. He was playing with fire and asking for something to come out. I didn’t understand why it mattered so much to him who a person sleeps with or why it affected him in the way that it did.
He always made it an issue in everything. It wasn’t about boxing or my opponents. We could just be walking down the street and he would think someone was gay, man or woman, then say something nasty. That’s who he was.
I would always ask him why he was so worried about that and it usually means there is something in their past haunting them.
WCT: The strap on dildos that he enjoyed says something about him, doesn’t it?
CSM: I became close with the author of the book Ron Borges and I asked him to explain to me why Jim was into that. He told me he couldn’t imagine why because Ron had no desire to ever see his wife with a strap on. Jim wanted a dildo involved all the time.
WCT: Jim attacked you with your own identity and manipulated you. What can people learn from your story?
CSM:What happened to me was because I was leaving him. He couldn’t stand the fact that I was leaving him period and to leave him for woman made it worse to him. I hope people can become stronger after watching the movie and not let it happen to them.
Christy fights her way into theaters on Nov. 7 and click on christymartin.net for information about her inspirational speaking engagements.