Sydney Sweeney Transforms Into Boxing Legend Christy Martin in Emotional Christy Trailer

11 September 2025

Sydney Sweeney in Christy (2025). Black Bear

Sydney Sweeney steps into the ring in a way few expected with Christy, the biopic about legendary female boxer Christy Martin that recently unveiled its first trailer. The Trailer made its debut following a standing ovation at the Toronto International Film Festival where audiences saw Sweeney physically and emotionally transform into the trailblazer she portrays. The film captures Martin’s journey from her humble beginnings in West Virginia to becoming one of boxing’s most powerful voices, and it delves into the darkness she endured in her private life as much as the spotlight she earned in the ring.

In order to inhabit Christy Martin’s strength, Sweeney underwent a rigorous physical transformation. Over three months she gained more than 30 pounds and subjected herself to a punishing training regimen that included weight training, kickboxing, and repeated hours in the gym. The intensity of her preparation is evident in every frame of the trailer. The muscles, the motion, the sweat all of it feels grounded and earned, not cosmetic. It’s visible in her posture, her movement, and the way she punches. She doesn’t just look like a boxer. In the trailer she is a boxer.

The film charts Martin’s early years in boxing, including her entry into “Toughwoman” contests during the late 1980s before she rose to household name status. It explores her successes in the ring, her knockout record, and the grit that made her a pioneer in a male-dominated sport. But the boxing matches are not the whole story. The trailer also teases Martin’s harrowing personal life, particularly her abusive relationship with her trainer-turned-husband, played by Ben Foster. It depicts how her victories were often shadowed by betrayals, violence, and internal conflict. The trailer doesn’t shy away from the violence outside the ring and the emotional consequences that followed.

One moment in the trailer where the mood changes is especially powerful. Sweeney as Martin is shown celebrating a win, supported and embraced in the ring, only for the atmosphere to crack when darker imagery takes over. We see the conflict and the confrontation, the pain and the fight for selfhood not just survival but reclaiming autonomy. It’s clear that Christy wants to tell not just a sports story but a human story. And it’s a reminder that the hardest fights are often not with opponents in the ring.

Christy Martin was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2020, a recognition of her impact and shut-out noise around what female boxers can achieve. Her record of 49 wins including 31 by knockout is part of why her life can carry both inspiration and heartbreak. The trailer shows both: the strength of her body and the vulnerability of her spirit. It shows a woman shaped not only by triumphs, but by trials some self-inflicted, many imposed by others.

Directed by David Michôd and supported by a cast that includes Merritt Wever and Katy O'Brian, Christy is poised to tell a story that feels urgent and resonant. Martin herself appears alongside Sweeney at the Toronto premiere, bearing witness to her story being reimagined. That presence adds weight: it is not only a performance but a reckoning. The filmmakers seem aware of the power and responsibility embedded in telling the full arc of someone’s life glory and trauma together.

The trailer concludes with a sense of both danger and hope. It shows Martin facing down not only her opponents but the consequences of her own choices and the control wielded over her. It suggests that power and endurance are never just about physical strength they are built on identity, agency, and survival. It also positions Christy as more than a sports biopic it is a story about reclaiming voice, about legacy, and about what it means to fight when so much is at stake.

Christy is set for theatrical release on November 7, 2025. As Sweeney trains, punches, and transforms, both the film and its trailer promise to be an emotional punch in their own way. It is a film that seems intent on making the audience feel not just the victories but also the scars. So when November comes, viewers will see more than a boxer. They will see a woman who refused to be defined by others. Christy may well become as much about how hard it is to rise as how high one can climb.