She was the first female fighter to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated and to sign with promoter Don King. She became a world champion and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020.
Though retired from boxing for 14 years, Christy “the Coal Miner’s Daughter” Salters (formerly Martin) is still fighting — now as an advocate against domestic violence and president of Christy’s Champs, a role she has held since 2017.
“This is the most important thing that I am doing or that I have done,” said the 58-year-old Salters, who was raised in Mullens, W.Va., and now lives in Apopka, Fla. “Christy’s Champs’ mission is to help survivors get back on their feet and make the general population aware of domestic violence.”
She knows this experience firsthand. Her husband, manager and trainer Jim Martin, abused her one night in 2010 to the tune of four stabbings and a gunshot wound. He told her he would kill her if she ever left him. He was convicted of second-degree murder, sentenced to 25 years, and died in prison in 2024.
People will always question why abused women don’t just leave. “That’s the bottom line,” Salters said. “They go back so many times because you’re financially tied together. All those things are not easy, especially when you’re 30, 40, or 50, or coming out of college with all that zest.”
Salters’s ring style could be described as zestful aggression: Of her 49 wins, 32 were by knockout. She lost seven times with three draws. She put women’s boxing on the map, fighting on the undercard of the Frank Bruno-Mike Tyson heavyweight championship in 1996; the same year as the Sports Illustrated cover. Salters had the best fight of the night, winning a six-round slugfest over Deirdre Gogarty. Five years later, she defeated Lisa Holewyne over 10 rounds and they were married in 2017.
Salters fought on major fight cards of Holyfield, Trinidad, and Chavez, but her first love was basketball. She earned a hoops scholarship to Concord College (NAIA) in Athens, W.Va., graduating with a BS in education.
She carries unseen scars from her boxing days. After breaking her hand during a fight and having surgery that lasted seven hours instead of two, she had a stroke after the operation. “I can’t come up with words, and my vision’s a little goofy,” she acknowledged. “I have double vision.”
Her life has been covered by the Netflix documentary “Untold: Deal with the Devil”; last year’s biopic “Christy,” starring Sydney Sweeney; and her book, “Fighting for Survival.”
Salters, who also promotes eight fighters, advises abused women and travels the country speaking against domestic violence. On Thursday, Oct. 22, she will be at SUNY Farmingdale at 11 a.m.
“You have to believe in you first,” declared the former WBC super-welterweight champ. “You have to put yourself number one. We hear mothers say, ‘I have to do this for my child.’ No: You have to take care of you first. If you don’t take care of you, you can’t take care of that child.”
Looking to the future
Salters raised the stature of women’s boxing, but what of today’s fighters when greats like Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano are close to retirement?
“There’s a bunch of good, talented women fighters,” she said, but “do they make the jump to that level? Remains to be seen.”
Salters wants to be remembered not so much as a fighter, but as something much more. “I survived domestic violence, the crazy world of boxing,” she said with a small laugh. “I’m not only one hell of a survivor, but I have tried to turn around to help others.”
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