Fight Report: Christy Martin vs. Diedre Gogarty

Christy Martin vs. Diedre Gogarty – The Fight that lit the sport  on Fire!

On March 16, 1996, on a Showtime televised card, Christy Martin and Diedre Gogarty set the sport on fire when they outshown the Mike Tyson mainliner.  Martin won the six-rounder by a unanimous decision.  This WAS the defining fight that lit the sport of women’s boxing by the outstanding fight of Christy Martin vs. Gogarty.  Martin went on to be on the cover of Sport Illustrated, and she was on several national television shows.

Photo credit: J & P Photographer (they shot photos for WBAN in the past)

Dee William writes in Martin’s Bio on WBAN:  “Martin became a media star through the bloody nose she was given by her most serious opponent in 1996, Irish featherweight Deirdre Gogarty. The unanimous six-round decision for Christy Martin on March 16 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas earned Martin recognition by the World Boxing Council as its nominal women’s lightweight champion of the world (they did not offer women’s title belts for open competition).   The fight’s real significance was that it was easily the highlight on the undercard of a disappointing men’s heavyweight title bout (Mike Tyson vs. British boxer Frank Bruno). The Martin-Gogarty battle was seen in an estimated 30 million homes and in over 100 countries! Gogarty fell to 11-5-2 with the loss. ”

“The image of the bloodied Martin battling to outpoint Gogarty (who recovered from a knockdown to make an exciting fight of it) brought more attention to women’s boxing than any other single event before or since. It took the sight of a female boxer bleeding like a stuck pig while winning her fight that put our sport on the world’s media radar in 1996!” adds Williams.

Background of Martin:

5’4½” junior welterweight Christy Martin from Orlando, Florida was probably the best-known female boxer in the world in the late 1990’s. Her contract with promoter Don King introduced millions of pay-per-view viewers to the sight of her knocking out (mostly over-matched) opponents on the undercards of promotions featuring Mike Tyson.

Born on June 12 1968 in Bluefield, West Virginia, the former Christy Salters was a catcher in Little League baseball. She played basketball at Mullens High and at Concord College in Athens. While at Concord, she entered and won a Tough Woman competition on a dare. Despite having little ring experience, she was amazed by how much she enjoyed herself. After graduating with an education degree in 1991, she and her mother Joyce looked into a ring career for her. They found trainer Jim Martin at a gym in Bristol, Tennessee.

Background of Diedre Gogarty:

5’6″ featherweight “Dangerous” Deirdre Gogarty was born on November 10, 1969 in Drogheda in County Louth, Ireland.  Although she became a world champion pro boxer, she had one of her biggest fights outside the ring … with the Irish Boxing Union, which would not sanction women’s pro fights in her home country.  Ireland’s loss was eventually Louisiana’s gain, as this policy forced Deirdre to fight her entire pro career in other countries … first in the U.K. and then in the U.S.A., where she settled in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Deirdre’s family background didn’t hint that she might be drawn into world championship boxing … her father is an oral surgeon, her mother is a dentist, she has a sister who is a doctor, and a brother who directs an orchestra.  Nevertheless, Deirdre grew up watching Irish featherweight champion Barry McGuigan, and found she was drawn to the sweet science.

Deidre initially went to England to fight as a professional boxer. She made her debut at the Elephant and Castle Center in London on June 30, 1991, winning a six-round decision over another debut fighter, Anne-Marie Griffin.