Christy Martin Defends Sydney Sweeney After Ruby Rose’s ‘Cretin’ Attack on Biopic

Professional boxer Christy Martin publicly defended Sydney Sweeney, who plays her in a new biopic, on Wednesday after she was widely blamed for the financial failure at the box office.

‘I’ve always been a fighter. My life reflected that in every way and now I fight for others,’ the 57-year-old trailblazing prize fighter wrote on Instagram.

‘The past few days I have seen some people attack my friend Sydney Sweeney. Syd not only worked her a** off for this film, she worked her a** off for me. For my story. For so many others suffering in silence. So I want to be clear about who Syd is. She is my friend and ally!’

Martin – who scored 49 wins, seven losses, and three draws with 31 wins by knockout – famously appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, which declared her ‘The Lady Is a Champ’ in 1996.

The retired athlete’s ex-husband James V. Martin is still serving a 25-year prison sentence at Graceville Correctional Facility for stabbing and shooting her in 2010, but she survived the attack.

Martin went on to marry former ring rival Lisa Holewyne, and they’ll celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary on November 25.

On Monday, Orange is the New Black alum Ruby Rose strongly objected to the casting of the 27-year-old registered Republican and claimed lesbians like herself stayed home from the cinema out of protest.

‘The original Christy Martin script was incredible. Life changing. I was attached to play Cherry,’ the Australian 39-year-old wrote on Threads of a role that appears to have been cut.

‘Everyone had experience with the core material. Most of us were actually gay. It’s part of why I stayed in acting. Losing roles happens all the time. For her PR to talk about it flopping and saying [Sydney Sweeney] did it for the “people.”

‘None of “the people” want to see someone who hates them, parading around pretending to be us. You’re a cretin and you ruined the film. Period. Christy deserved better.’

This marks the first time Sweeney has been accused of homophobia over her political affiliations, but she’s definitely unapologetic about her controversial American Eagle campaign, which was accused of pushing Nazi-like eugenics as aspirational.

When GQ gave the Spokane-born LA-raised bombshell the opportunity to condemn white supremacy last week, she replied: ‘When I have an issue that I want to speak about, people will hear. I know at the end of the day what that ad was for, and it was great jeans, so it didn’t affect me one way or the other.’

Sweeney executive produced and packed on 30lbs of muscle to more authentically star in David Michôd’s $15M-budget biopic, which made history with one of the worst box office openings ($1.6M total) among films released in at least 2K theaters – according to Box Office Mojo.

‘I am so deeply proud of this movie. Proud of the film David made. Proud of the story we told. Proud to represent someone as strong and resilient as Christy Martin. This experience has been one of the greatest honors of my life,’ the Giorgio Armani global brand ambassador gushed on Monday.

‘If Christy gave even one woman the courage to take her first step toward safety, then we will have succeeded. So yes I’m proud. Why? Because we don’t always just make art for numbers, we make it for impact. And Christy has been the most impactful project of my life. Thank you Christy. I love you.’

The 135-minute sports drama – finally hitting UK theaters November 28 – also features Ben Foster, Katy O’Brian, Merritt Wever, and Ethan Embry.

Christy currently has a 65% critic approval rating (out of 156 reviews), but a 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Sweeney is in dire need of a blockbuster after two of her movies flopped at the box office in August – $9M-budget Americana only earned $500K and $55M-budget Eden only earned $2.5M (despite Ron Howard directing).

In January, the Immaculate producer-star played Claire Garrett in Michael Pearce’s thriller Echo Valley for Apple TV+, which was poorly received and the theatrical box office gross was never revealed.

And last year, Sweeney played Julia Cornwall in S. J. Clarkson’s universally-panned superhero flick Madame Web, which barely broke even earning $100.5M at the global box office.

The Euphoria alum will next executive produce and star as ex-con Millie Calloway in Lionsgate’s The Housemaid, which hits US theaters December 19.

Paul Feig’s big-screen adaptation of Freida McFadden’s 2022 novel also features Amanda Seyfried, Elizabeth Perkins, Brandon Sklenar and Michele Morrone.