Famous, but Not Free
nytimes.comMULLENS, W.Va. — Christy Martin put a sweet tea and a Sprite on her tab at Second Street Station on a recent afternoon. She had only a $100 bill and didn’t want to trouble the waitress by asking her to break it.
The restaurant knew Martin was good for it. Everyone in this former mining town knows her. Martin, 54, is largely credited with legitimizing female boxing in the modern era.
The first female boxer to make the cover of Sports Illustrated, she went undefeated for a decade, achieving success but secretly living a tortured life.
It was her second experience of fame — a terrifying, nearly fatal one — that finally set her free. Martin fought for the first time in a West Virginia “toughman” contest in 1987, the first year women were allowed to compete.
