I remember being in her locker room, the only female journalist covering the fight, when she knocked out Erica Schmidlin on the Tyson-Buster Mathis Jnr undercard, and she was complaining about breaking a nail. She was different to any other fighter out there. She was from a tiny town in West Virginia, a coal miner’s daughter – as became her moniker. I first wrote about Christy in 1995, “before all the big stuff happened”, as she puts it. And I hear that in my head like it was this morning.” After the second or third round, Jessie Robinson said, ‘You’re rocking the f- house Christy’. “I remember getting in the ring and seeing all the celebrities and I was like, ‘Oh my god anybody who is anybody is here.’ I knew it was a big opportunity and I had to take advantage of that. Now, at Canino’s gym in Dania Beach, Florida, Christy smiles at the memory. Women’s boxing had arrived, and Christy had got what she wanted: respect as a fighter.
#LISA HOLEWYNE TV#
A carousel of TV talk show invites followed, and a Sports Illustrated cover. The real action of the night was two women dropping bombs, one of them in pink trunks with a fringe.Ĭhristy won the thrilling contest, voted the fight of the night. Forget Bruno, who crossed himself 12 times as he walked into the ring looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights. It was the hottest ticket in town: Mike Tyson v Frank Bruno.īoxing fans had groaned that a women’s fight was on the undercard, the sport wasn’t accepted then – the sport was actually outlawed in Gogarty’s native Ireland.
The first came 14 years earlier, as she walked into the ring in front of a sell-out crowd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to go six rounds with Deirdre Gogarty in a fight that catapulted women’s boxing into the mainstream. It would be the second defining moment of her life. It was 23 November, 2010, and her husband had just tried to kill her, stabbing her four times and shooting her with Christy’s own gun, a pink nine-millimetre Taurus that missed her heart by just three inches. The second was Jim, taking a shower, washing the blood off his hands. As she came to, the first sound she heard was blood gurgling through her lungs. Christy Martin exclusive interview: 'My husband left me for dead on the bedroom floor'īoxing icon Don King made Martin a world champion but her bloodiest fight was as a result of horrific domestic abuseĬhristy Martin lay on the floor of the house she shared with husband and trainer, Jim Martin, slowly regaining consciousness.
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