A new sports documentary was just released on Netflix. Untold: Deal with the Devil is the second installment of the Untold sports documentary series and it tells the story of boxer Christy Martin. She gained attention for winning an undercard match at the 1996 fight between Mike Tyson and Frank Bruno.
“Growing up in a small town in West Virginia, Martin was a popular standout athlete, and as she began to win her first amateur fights, she struggled with being open about her sexual orientation, choosing to keep her relationships with women secret,” the synopsis states. “She later found a coach in Jim Martin, a professional boxing trainer who, despite his initial skepticism about “women’s boxing,” signed on to help train her.
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“They would later become romantically involved, despite their 20-year-plus age difference. After landing on Don King’s radar, Martin, under the moniker ‘The Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ experienced a meteoric rise, including the cover of Sports Illustrated, breaking pay-per-view records in women’s boxing along the way. The fall from that height was steep and included substance abuse, domestic violence and a harrowing brush with death. Martin reveals how she battled back to level ground and a content personal life, which now includes an induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.”
On Nov. 23, 2010, Christy Martin was stabbed several times and shot by her husband. A month later, Jim Martin was arrested at taken to the hospital after she stabbed himself. In April 2012, Jim was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was interviewed for Untold as well as Mike Tyson, Laila Ali and Martin’s family.
“I did not know that Jim would be part of it, but as we went along and as I became very comfortable with the director Laura Brownson,” Christy Martin said in an interview with Queerty. I think she was very fair with her portrayal of everybody in the documentary. As I watched it, I felt people were telling the truth, speaking from the heart, speaking from their own remembrance…except Jim. I just shake my head. 10 years in prison and he’s still the same arrogant ass he was back then? That probably was the hardest part of the documentary. Martin, 53, finished her boxing career with a 49-7-3 record. She was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020.
