The True Story Behind Sydney Sweeney’s New Boxing Biopic ‘Christy’

Sydney Sweeney‘s transformation into boxing legend Christy Martin took the internet by storm when the Anyone But You actress announced her upcoming biopic back in October 2024. Since then, the duo have been working tirelessly to bring Martin’s story of survival and triumph to life on the silver screen with Christy.

“This story is so much bigger than just a film,” Sweeney wrote in a heartfelt ode to the 57-year-old. “…It’s a testament to resilience, survival, and finding the strength to keep fighting. I can’t wait for you all to see it—not only because I’m proud of the transformation and the work I’ve poured into it, but because Christy’s story deserves to be told.”

Of course, anyone who is familiar with Martin’s life knows that Christy is not merely a movie about sports. The athlete’s story includes plenty of triumphs in the ring, to be sure, but Martin is also a survivor of domestic abuse and attempted murder. Simultaneously, she spent the first 40-odd years of her life in the closet before embracing her sexuality in the 2010s.

“Jim told me for so many years that if people knew I was gay, the world would turn on me,” Martin later told The Times of her ex-husband, “but I have more support and people in my life now than I ever did.”

Ahead, here’s everything you should know about legendary boxer Christy Martin, a.k.a. “the Coal Miner’s Daughter,” whose story of survival is (finally) being celebrated on the silver screen.

Christy Martin is a retired pro boxer.

Martin’s pioneering career in professional boxing began when she was 21 years old with a match against Angela Buchanan in 1989. The fight was a draw; six months later, Martin won a rematch with a second round knockout. She went on to win a total of 49 matches before retiring in 2011; three years later, she was inducted into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame.

In 2016, Martin was the first woman to be inducted into the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame. In 2020, she again made history as the first woman to be inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

“When people left, I wanted them to say, ‘Wow, that was a good fight!’ Not ‘That was a good woman’s fight,'” the athlete later said in an interview with ESPN. “I didn’t want to be a good woman fighter. I wanted to be the best.”

She survived an abusive relationship and attempted murder.

Martin married her boxing coach, Jim Martin, in 1991. He was 47 at the time; she was 22. He “controlled every aspect of [her] life,” becoming emotionally and physically abusive, Florida state attorney Deborah Barra told ESPN in a 2020 interview.

“For 20 years, Jim told me he was going to kill me if I ever left him,” Christy recalled in the same interview. “At first, I didn’t think he was serious. But then time went on. And I realized.”

Christy became addicted to cocaine, which she claims her husband supplied. Then, in 2010, she told him she wanted a divorce. Jim stabbed her in their home, shot her in the chest, and left her for dead in their bedroom. Christy miraculously survived and resolved to use her story to help others.

“I said from the hospital bed, as soon as I woke up, that God left me here for a reason: to share my story and talk about domestic violence with people, to talk about the drugs, the sex,” she told Austin Monthly. “Because you know what? There are so many people out there that are suffering, and they don’t know how to get help.”

In 2012, Jim was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He died at Graceville Correctional Facility in November 2024, per People.

She married her former rival Lisa Holewyne in 2017.

Seven years after her divorce was finalized, Martin found love again with her former ring rival Lisa Holewyne. The couple tied the knot on November 25, 2017. For Martin, it was the culmination of a long road to publicly identifying as LGBTQ+ following years of hiding her sexuality, first as a child in West Virginia and later as the wife of an abusive husband.

In 2024, Martin shared a heartfelt ode to her wife on Instagram. “23 years ago today I met my wife lol. Bet no one else can say their spouse punched them on their first date,” she wrote. “I love you, Lisa Holewyne.”

She wrote a memoir about her life called ‘Fighting for Survival.’

Aside from Christy, Martin’s life has already been chronicled in two projects: first, a Netflix documentary titled Untold: Deal with the Devil, which was released in 2021. The film was the second installment of the nine-part Untold series (other previous subjects include Tim Tebow and Caitlyn Jenner).

Following the doc’s release, Martin wrote an account of her life in her memoir Fighting for Survival: My Journey through Boxing Fame, Abuse, Murder, and Resurrection. “Hopefully, by sharing my story, I can get someone else a little inspiration, a little, a little confidence, a little boost that, hey? If Christy can do it, so can I,” the author told CBS News.

She “completely changed” Sydney Sweeney’s life.

Ahead of the movie premiere, Sweeney penned a tribute to the boxing champion on Instagram in which she gushed that Martin’s story has “completely changed me.”

“We have wrapped filming Christy Martin’s story and it has been one of the most emotional, transformative experiences of my life,” the actress wrote in a second heartfelt post. “Christy’s journey is so deeply inspiring, and having her by my side during this process was nothing short of surreal.”

As for Martin’s story of surviving domestic abuse, “It’s a very personal issue that’s important to me, and I hope that through Christy and her story, it can raise more awareness,” Sweeney told Variety, adding simply, “It’s personal.”