Rocky Lady Picture Show

I really have to scrape the 90s memory banks to remember Christy Martin. I vaguely recall her being a trailblazing boxing star, and her pioneering Sports Illustrated cover definitely rings some bells. But, sadly, most of my remaining boxing knowledge from that era revolves around Mike Tyson biting off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear. So I think I somehow missed Martin’s harrowing life story and eventual coming out.

This is all to say that I’m rather excited about the new Christy Martin biopic starring Sydney Sweeney. Now, I mostly know Sydney as one of the terrifyingly cool teens on the first season of “White Lotus.” I never saw her hit rom-com “Anyone But You” (mostly because she and Glen Powell just look so much like people who would have bullied me in high school – even if they’re actually lovely….) and I don’t need the anxiety of watching young people make bad decisions that is “Euphoria.” But I know she has been proactively building her career, producing her own projects etc.

So Sydney has turned herself into a bit of a Muscle Mommy to transform for the role which I am definitely not mad about. She told Deadline Christy’s story is “powerful and emotional” and that she “not only legitimized female boxing, she overcame gender stereotypes, and fought through emotional, physical, and financial abuse.” And, don’t worry, it’s gonna be gay. Director David Michôd said the story will be about Christy “as a young gay woman in small-town West Virginia in the 1990s. She came from a relatively conservative family and wasn’t allowed to be who she was so she used boxing as a vehicle to express herself and her rage. She had to make some dangerous and fundamental compromises in her life, the most important of which was marrying an incredibly dangerous man.”

And the cherry on top of this Big Gay Biopic? Katy O’Brian, everyone’s reigning Muscle Mommy Crush thanks to “Love Lies Bleeding,” will play her boxing rival and eventual wife Lisa Holewyne. And Merritt Wever from “Nurse Jackie” (and another notably Bury Your Gays victim in “The Walking Dead”) is also in this thing which makes me happy because I lowkey adore her, period.

So, thoughts? Who has a better memory and recalls Christy’s glory days clearly? I’m just happy for my little gray cells that they’re making a movie – and the muscles don’t hurt either.