08.02.04 – Bernie McCoy: There is a popular proverb in Hollywood that there are five stages to an actor’s career. These stages, from unknown performer through the varying degrees of success and beyond, are characterized by various obiters, or observations, reflecting the relative fame at each stage of the career. It is much the same with boxers, the most individual of all sports performers and so it is with Christy Martin, the original “face of Women’s boxing”, who seems to have traversed the five stages of her career.
Stage 1-“Who is Christy Martin”: Martin, a high school and college athlete in West Virginia, began her professional boxing career in 1988 after a brief sojourn into the Toughwoman circuit of organized brawling. Martin’s first bout, in September of that year, was a four round draw wih Angela Buchanan in Tennessee. Three weeks later, Martin returned to the ring and KO’d Buchanan in one round in North Carolina. Throughout her career, Martin would fight Buchanan twice more, winning both bouts by KO. As with most fighters starting out, there were some “speed bumps” early on. The first came in November of that first year when Martin dropped a five round decision to Andrea DeShong, a tough, experienced boxer. Six months later, Martin got a measure of revenge, winning a five round decision over DeShong. Christy Martin was beginning to get noticed by the boxing community in a still formative sport as she emerged from Stage 1 of her career.
Stage 2- “Get Christy Martin”: This stage represents the longest stretch of Martin’s career, a full six years when she cut a swath through the now growing sport of Women’s boxing. Martin won eighteen straight fights, most by knockout in the early rounds, over opposition that reflected the relative inexperience of most female fighters in the early nineties. With well developed skills and punching power, Martin was, by a wide margin, the best fighter in the sport and was in increasing demand around the country. There was an unexpected draw with a debuting Laura Serrano, in May ‘ 94, on the undercard of Julio Cesar Chavez/Tony Randall bout in Las Vegas, a bout that many in attendance thought Serrano had won, but Martin’s growing “rep” was enough to garner a draw. Undeterred, Martin followed this momentary slowdown with her most impressive win to date. Chris Kruez was a Chicago fighter who had gained a reputation as a devastating puncher in and around the Windy City and as a result of a series of boxing tapes, entitled “Tough Enough”, that chronicled her career. Martin and Kruez came together in September ‘ 94 in Las Vegas. After a fairly even first round, Martin took control of the fight and battered Kruez without letup until the referee stopped the onslaught in the fourth round. Kruez was never the same fighter after the bout. Martin continued her winning ways with six bouts (including one against the always available Angela Buchanan) before she arrived at the pinnacle of her career, a fight on the undercard of a Mike Tyson bout in Las Vegas. It marked the end of her career’s Stage 2.
Stage 3- “Get a Christy Martin type”: On the undercard of the Mike Tyson/Frank Bruno bout in March ‘ 96, Martin stepped into the ring against a skilled Irish boxer, Deidre Gogarty. Martin maintained a double digit pound weight advantage and essentially won all six rounds of the bout, scoring a knockdown in the middle rounds. Gogarty’s skill and toughness kept her on her feet at the end and she even managed to bloody Martin’s face by the end of the bout. It was that face that appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated the following week. At this point, Christy Martin was possibly the best known woman athlete in the country, certainly the best known female boxer, ever. The problem with pinnacles, however, is that there’s only one direction to go once you reach the top of the mountain. Martin, at this point, cut back her schedule over the next two years, fighting a relatively light schedule of seven bouts, including another measure of revenge over the first woman to beat her, Andrea DeShong, who Martin stopped in seven rounds in June ‘ 97, after keeping a pre-fight promise to “punish” DeShong. Again, however, another “speedbump” awaited in Ft Lauderdale. In December ‘ 98, Martin fought up and coming Sumya Anani who won a ten round decision and, in the words of Bobby Czyz, “not only beat Martin, but beat her up”. Although Martin followed this loss with an impressive win over Daniella Somers in Las Vegas the following year, the summit of Martin’s career had been reached and she was now on the other side of the mountain as Stage 3 ended and Stage 4 approached.
Stage 4- “Get a Young Christy Martin”: After Martin left Daniella Somers draped on the Las Vegas ropes in October, ‘ 99, she embarked on a six fight schedule over the next two years against some of the quality fighters in the now fully developed sport. Martin won all six fights against the likes of Cathy Collins, in Madison Square Garden, Lisa Holewyne, Belinda Laracuente and Jeanne Martinez, but, save for a one round KO of an overmatched Sabrina Hall, all these bouts went the distance. Martin’s once devastating punching power seemed to have gone missing. It was at this point in her career, realizing that the end of her career was in sight, that Martin agreed to a fight with Mia St. John. St. John had achieved a somewhat dubious reputation fighting underskilled opposition in four round bouts that bore little resemblance to the improved skill level of most of the top fighters in the sport. The Martin/St John bout was viewed by most in the sport as a mismatch and an opportunity for Martin to reestablish her knockout reputation. The fight, however, was not a success from any standpoint. Held in December, ‘ 02 in Detroit, it was attended by less than a thousand spectators and generated a tepid level of PPV subscribers. Adding to the debacle was the fact that Martin, never known as a fanatic for conditioning, showed up in what was the worst shape of her career. Trying for an early KO, Martin chased St. John for the first three rounds and then, realizing she wasn’t in condition to catch the fleet St. John, Martin settled in for the ten round distance and won a decision, comfortably. While the fight did wonders for St. John’s reputation since she could now point to surviving ten rounds with Christy Martin, it was, unquestionably, the low point of Martin’s 13 years in the ring. Seeking a measure of redemption, Martin sought a bout with Laila Ali. Giving away at least 20 pounds and an insurmountable reach, Martin stepped in with Ali last August in Mississippi. For the first time in her career, Martin was on the wrong side of a mismatch. The bigger woman battered Martin relentlessly from the opening bell, disdainfully shrugging off her futile punches. The end came in the fourth round; Ali caught Martin, who had already been on the canvas, on the ropes near the end of the round and landed several big right hands. As Christy Martin, still and always, the first “face of Women’s boxing”, waited out the ten count on one knee, she glanced at her manager/husband in the corner, yelling “stay down, stay down”. It was as clear any sign that Stage 4 of her long, momentous career had ended and somewhere, in that humid Mississippi night, there was probably a sign that, if she continued on in the ring, what loomed for her was Stage 5 of her career:
“Who is Christy Martin”.