“Untold: Deal with the Devil” (2021) is the second episode of the first nine-episode season in an ongoing Netflix sports documentary streaming series. This episode tells the life story of professional boxer Christy Martin, from her first time boxing in 1986 in West Virginia to the present day. Martin’s life story was dramatized in a movie starring Sydney Sweeney called “Christy” (2025). If you already have a Netflix subscription, save yourself some money, stay home and watch this episode instead, which is shorter than most movies and better at conveying the full spectrum of Christy’s life, including why she kept her married name.
“Untold: Deal with the Devil” is told in Christy’s own words, which is elite, especially when she starts smack talking people who wronged her in real life. It is easy to see how she became a champ. It also consists of actual footage from Christy’s press conferences, interviews, personal photographs, training home video and fights, which is the best way to convey how good she was and how she became the number one women’s professional boxing champion. This documentary balances the low and high points well whereas the narrative film does not have the same effect because no one is as impressive as the real deal. Christy is unsurprisingly initially interviewed in front of a boxing ring and is shown sparring. Surprisingly Christy seemed to initially have a genuine solid friendship with Martin, but once the narrative turns to personal matters, the episode rewinds to her origins in Itmann, West Virginia where she is shot in her grandmother’s house to address her sexual orientation. Sherry Lusk, Christy’s first girlfriend, is interviewed in a regular gymnasium, which signifies how they initially met while playing sports in high school.
There are other interviews with people who had a front row seat to her life, including her family. Christy’s mom, Joyce Salters, gives her interview inside a church and comes across only a skosh better in the documentary, but not by much. It is mainly because she expresses anger against Jim Martin, Christy’s ex-husband and former manager, and sorrow over an estrangement with her daughter, but she never owns up to her role in grooming Christy to be exploited and cowed. Johnny Salters, Christy’s dad, is interviewed at a table at home and is way more talkative than he is depicted in the film. He is full of big talk now that Martin is in jail, but his excuses for not intervening when Martin was abusing his daughter are the universal copout of letting his daughter handle her life in the way that she sees fit even if he does not like it. Sure. Fun fact: Martin is older than her father. Christy’s brother does not appear.
Martin is also interviewed while incarcerated. He has since died. It is wild to hear him talk about their relationship, and if you want to learn how to spot a liar, watch “Untold: Deal with the Devil” because he genuinely sounds like he wanted to protect Christy and is proud of her. The point is that you cannot tell that he is lying, but the key is comparing a fact that you do know with his words to understand what he lies about and theorize the motivation for lying. Then you can pick up how he lies and spot it later. Once director Laura Brownson challenges his account that Christy never asked to split, his story changes frequently, and he contradicts himself still omitting facts that put him in a bad light. He does admit that Christy’s Pomeranian dog hated him. The only shortfall in “Untold: Deal with the Devil” is its failure to elaborate on the nature of his prior relationships because he may have outstanding alimony and/or child support debts. He really does not believe that he did anything wrong.
“Untold: Deal with the Devil” definitely beats “Christy” because it focuses on the other people that Christy worked with, which includes Jimmy “Shortdog” Maloney, Christy’s sparring partner, who describes himself as her best friend and is also shot in front of a boxing ring. The biggest coup is an interview with Mike Tyson, who chose Christy to appear in his undercard. For those too young to know, Tyson was one of the best heavyweight boxers in the world. Getting a cosign from Tyson is a bigger honor than any purse that Christy could win. Her opponents are also interviewed: Deirdre Gogarty, the person whom Christy beat in the pay per view fight, Lisa Holewyne, Christy’s current spouse, and Laila Ali, who so clearly dominates the field once she arrives on the scene. The best part is that Ali credits Martin and Gogarty’s fight as the inspiration for her becoming a boxer. Miguel Diaz, her cutman, who later became her trainer after she split with Martin, is the heart of the documentary as someone who cared more about the person before the fighter. Hearing Christy say that he is her “papi” in that dry drawl is worth the price of admission.
“Untold: Deal with the Devil” also addresses Christy and Jim’s cocaine habit in more logistical detail. In “Christy,” it seems forced, but in Christy’s words, it sounds more organic and later becomes another tool in the manipulation toolbox. The home surveillance footage is puzzling and indiscernible until you realize the context. It does appear that she was less invested in fighting than depicted in “Christy” until after they split.
Brownson, composer Brocker Way and editors Adam Stone and David Bolen understand the musicality of Christy’s vocal cadence, sense of humor and dry wit then underscore it with their skilled technique to amplify it, especially when Christy talks about Martin’s final attack. It is equal parts hilarious and horrifying, but unlike the feature, it keeps Christy on top. Also, it segues into a happy ending with the entire boxing world accepting Christy’s sexual orientation almost as a given after thought, especially considering the context of how she was outted.
The story of her last fight and her career post Martin was not included in “Christy,” and it is almost worthy of its own movie. Even though she had changed because she was no longer dealing with internalized homophobia, that smack talking hater with power is still present to this day. During the interview, she still looks furious about how it ended since she was winning. She still thinks that rules should not apply to her because she is the best, and it is not entitlement if she is willing to pay in pain. The story gets wilder and honestly if “Untold: Deal with the Devil” has a flaw, it could have been longer and still engrossing because the episode does not address how her health plummeted and the story of her physical recovery was probably just as riveting as everything that came before.
If people are praising Sweeney’s performance, it is probably because moviegoers are conflating it with Christy’s impressive accomplishments, including walking out of her home after a vicious murder attempt on her life. “Untold: Deal with the Devil” shows that it is possible to be strong, move on, still be traumatized and get counseling. Shot nine years after Martin attempted to murder his wife, it feels like there is more story to tell, and it only brushed the surface. Make another episode.
