Christy Martin Wiki – Biography
Christy Martin is a former American world champion boxer and currently the CEO of Christy Martin Promotions.
Martin was born in Mullens, West Virginia with the name Christy Salters and attended Mullens High School.
She played various sports as a child including Little League baseball and all-state basketball. She attended Concord College in Athens, West Virginia on a basketball scholarship and earned a B.S. in education.
Salters Martin currently is the CEO of Christy Martin Promotions a boxing promotion company that has promoted 13 events in North Carolina since 2016 and will be promoting boxing events in Jacksonville, Florida.
Christy Martin Age
Christy Martin is 52-years-old.
Married
Christy was married to former ring rival Lisa Holewyne on November 25th, 2017.
Facing Her Biggest Battle Outside Of The Ring
Opponents feared boxer Christy Martin in the ring. However, it was at home where she fought her biggest battle – the one for her life
Christy Martin was a worldwide sensation in the boxing ring and was even on the cover of Sports Illustrated. She won 49 fights and was heading for 50. Away from the ring, however, Martin says she faced a different fight because her husband and trainer Jim Martin was abusive and controlling.
“I keep thinking of the people who will watch this and say, ‘How does a woman who’s so powerful … how is she not able to stand up for herself at home,’” asks correspondent David Begnaud.
“I know that people think that. But I didn’t have the same type of mental strength to overtake him,” Martin responds.
When Christy Martin finally tried to end the marriage – she says Jim went on the attack, beating and stabbing her, before pulling a gun. Moments later, he fired one shot into her chest, missing her heart by just inches.
Christy Martin survived that day in their Florida home. Jim Martin would then go on trial for attempted murder. Jim Martin’s attorney maintained it was Christy who attacked her husband, not the other way around.
“The way Jim described it … Christie …was extremely aggressive.,” defense attorney Bill Hancock tells Begnaud. “He was constantly afraid of physical attacks by her.”
Prosecutors also wondered whether a jury would believe that a celebrated boxer would be beaten by her husband.
“She became famous beatin’ the hell out of people,” Begnaud comments to prosecutor Deborah Barra. “So — it’s pretty plausible that she might beat the hell out of her husband.”
“Absolutely,” Barra replies, but she says it’s not that simple.
“I think it’s a remarkable story because you have a world-famous champion boxer and she could still be in a domestic violence relationship, because that isn’t about physical strength. It’s about mental abuse.”
It’s hard for most people to believe that a boxer known for knocking out 32 of 49 opponents could be the victim of domestic violence, but that is what Christy Salters-Martin lived to tell a jury and “48 Hours” contributor David Begnaud. Her husband tried to kill her, she says, but she refused to die. “I told him, ‘You cannot kill me,’ and I meant it. Just like the sun came up this morning, I meant it.”
“Christy Martin – The Fight of Her Life” is reported by Begnaud in an all-new “48 Hours” airing Saturday, November 14 at 10/9c on CBS.
Christy Salters-Martin says she is an advocate for women in abusive relationships because of what she survived. On November 23, 2010, after 19 years of marriage, Christy says she was sitting on her bed putting on her running shoes when her husband, Jim Martin, entered the bedroom armed with a knife and gun.
About an hour later, Christy managed to flag down a stranger on her street in Apopka, Florida, who rushed her to a nearby emergency room. Christy had been stabbed four times in the chest, her left lung was punctured, her left leg was cut to the bone, and there was a bullet lodged three inches from her heart.
She says she was able to get up off the floor and escape when Jim decided to take a shower. “I would love to see the look on his face when he got out of the shower, came back to the room and I was gone.”
While doctors worked to save Christy’s life, Jim Martin disappeared. Police found him seven days later not far from the crime scene. Martin, who still had the knife used to stab Christy, declared himself innocent. He said he was the victim of a vicious attack by his wife and ran in fear to a neighbor’s shed, where he says he slipped in and out of consciousness until just before police dogs found him.
