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Christy Martin emerged from a West Virginia coal town and reached the pinnacle of women’s boxing. While most witnessed her dominance inside the ring, Martin secretly faced looming threats in her personal life that almost turned deadly.

Martin’s rise to fame and its terrifying aftermath are the subject of the biographical movie Christy, now streaming on HBO Max and starring Sydney Sweeney as the famous pugilist.

The real Martin is considered beloved pioneer of her sport, with her blue-collar background and unwavering confidence inspiring scores of fans during the 1990s and 2000s. However, the champion fighter simultaneously faced an abusive marriage that no one knew about—until it nearly cost Martin her life.

A self-described “aggressive kid” who got into schoolyard fights, as Martin told ESPN in 2020, she stayed close to her parents, John Salters—a welder at the local coal mine—and Joyce Salters, who tried to channel her passion into more productive outlets. “My dad always told me, ‘You can do anything you want to do, be anything you want to be,’” Martin recalled.