Published: June 20, 2009 11:57 pm      

Woman boxer wants one more show for fans

Christy Martin, who has carved out an impressive women’s boxing career over the last 20 years, wants to go out with a bang in front of the home folks.

Martin hopes to have a four-fight card with bouts between Huntington and Pikeville.

Tom Hanshaw, who is part of the ABC PAALS organization in the area, is going to try and help Martin ger her four-fight deal scheduled and benefit local boxing in the process.

“Boxing is booming around here right now,” he said. “We want to take advantage of it and Christy can help us do that.”

Martin, 40, is a former WBC and WBA champion but currently doesn’t hold any belts.

However, she had a 47-5-3 professional record with 31 knockouts and defeated everybody in her weight class. She lost to Laila Ali, daughter of boxing great Muhammad Ali, who wasn’t in her weight class.

“Hopefully, we could get her for the fourth fight (in the comeback),” Martin said.

Martin’s career took her all over the world and she once appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Don King was her fight prompter for 10 years, she said. She fought on the same cards with Evander Holyfield, and Mike Tyson.

“I fought on the March 16 Tyson-Bruno undercard in 1996 and it was bloody,” Martin said. “They called Jim, my trainer, and said if no one dies, Christy is going to be on the (SI) cover (April 16, 1996). It’s kind of strange walking into a store and buying a magazine with you on the cover. We were in Argentina.”

For Martin, it was a long trek from a young boxer in a little town in West Virginia to appearing on the cover of the world’s most famous sports magazine.

“I’m from a little town outside of Mullins (W.Va.) with about 500 people,” she said. “My main thing is to give people in West Virginia one big last show, a series of four. They stood behind me the last 20 years.

“Even though I live in Florida (now), they always announce me from West Virginia, the Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

Martin, 40, said her family is still in West Virginia. Hanshaw actually pitched the idea of Martin’s comeback series.

“I hooked up with Tom at the (National) Golden Gloves Tournament in Salt Lake City,” Martin said. “He was giving me a hard time about not fighting around home. I told him I wanted to come home and fight. He jumped on it. He started talking to people and getting it together.”

Hanshaw said he would like to have had some fights in Ashland, but the venues didn’t seem big enough. He hopes taking the fights between Huntington and Pikeville will create more boxing buzz in the area.

“Tom has done such a good job with the amateur program, getting kids off the street,” Martin said.

Martin said she would make some appearances in the Ashland area while training for the fights, which she and Hanshaw hope can come about around August.

Martin would like her first fight to be against Valerie Mafud, who she fought for the NABF title in Houston last July.

The fight was called a draw but Martin said even Mafud’s hometown fans in Houston were booing the decision.

“I definitely want that one,” she said. “Mostly, I’m excited to come home. I want to come home. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a long, long time.”

More details will be announced later as the fights are scheduled.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.