Bob Velin of USA Today profiled Christy Martin, the 42-year-old female boxing star whose husband attempted to murder her last year. Martin's boxing career resumes on June 4, on the Zbik vs Chavez undercard in Los Angeles.
Her account of the attempted murder is chilling. This is just a piece of it:
For one hour she said, Jim attacked and tortured her, leaving her to die on the floor as she begged for help. She knew her lung was punctured; she could hear the gurgling sound.
"I think he was just waiting to see if I was going to die. Finally he came back in, stood at my feet, pointed the gun at me and shot me. Missed my heart by 4 inches. The crazy thing is the bullet went through the same hole as the stab wound in my breast."
Martin (49-5-3, 31 KO) faces Dakota Stone (9-8-5, 1 KO), and will have veteran trainer and cutman Miguel Diaz in her corner. Stone fought Martin in 2009, and neither have fought since. The veteran fighter is looking forward to her return, and trusts Diaz's judgment:
"I reached out to Miguel," she says, "because I knew if I didn't have it, he would take me off to the side, put his arm around me and say, 'Christy, we've been together way too long for me to let you get back in the ring and embarrass yourself, get hurt or embarrass the people involved with you."
I've said before that this whole thing feels kind of dirty, that Top Rank suddenly having interest in Christy Martin sure came at, you know, an opportune time, and that I have no real desire to see Christy fight. But she has the desire to fight, and at least she's with a legitimate promoter who won't rip her off.