Photojournalist - Tom Burton - Behind the Viewfinder

April 16, 1998

Femme Fatale

A couple of times week, I find myself sitting in the car about three blocks from the Sentinel offices. This is Robinson Street, where one waits for the traffic light before turning onto Interstate 4 to head for south Orlando or out to the tourist theme parks. By Orlando standards, the scene at this intersection is dreary. Ahead there is the weathered concrete of the interstate overpass and on either side there are old warehouse buildings that have more dirt than landscaping. It’s not the beautiful shops and restaurants of Church Street or the modern Orlando Arena that are just a few blocks away.

Every time I stop there, I glance to my left at a gray, cinder block building to see if the clanky garage door is pulled open. If it is, one can hear the machine-gun-paced rap of a speed bag or the clanking of heavy chains that hold full-sized punching bags or the rapid slapping of a jump rope.

I first went into this makeshift boxing gym two years ago when the Sentinel’s Sunday magazine began a story on Christy Martin, a champion boxer. More significantly, Martin is a champion woman boxer. She was starting a hot streak and we were one of many, many media organizations showing up to do stories.

Martin had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated and a copy was sitting on the desk of Mike Mcleod, a writer for Florida magazine. Two and two together equaled Mike doing a story on Martin and I jumped in, asking to make the photos.

click to see interactive gallery of this feature

In the long history of boxing, women have traditionally been involved only as ring girls or as novelty acts in powder puff matches.

Men thought women boxers were lesbians; women thought they were crazy.

Christy Martin, both in the ring and out, has worked to erase those myths. This is the story of her training and her experience fighting on the undercard for a Mike Tyson fight.

Click to see this interative feature about Christy Martin

For this kind of story, our typical photography would include a formal portrait of Martin with her pink boxing gloves, a photo of her working out and another photo of her and her husband Jim at home. For her fight in Las Vegas, we would use Associated Press photos.

Because we had time before the story ran there was more time for this assignment and we could to do something else. There wouldn’t be formal portraits or arranged situations. I could hang around and watch what happened. And if we were granted special access, I could wrangle a trip to Vegas for the fight. By being around a lot, both the reporter and I could build a more intimate relationship with Christy and her husband/trainer Jim. If we earned their confidence, then we could see more behind-the-scenes access.

I started going to the gym once or twice a week. Most of the time, there was yet another television crew taping a story on Christy. Sometimes, it would only be Jim, Christy and myself. Eventually there were more than enough photos for a magazine story, including a cover.

Jim had been cagey in committing to what I might be able to photograph in Vegas. The big variable was going to be Christy. The closer it gets to a fight, the more agitated Christy becomes. If she got in a really bad mood, she wouldn’t want a photographer around. He could give no guarantees.

My managing editor wanted to know if we were guaranteed special access in Vegas. Without the access, there was no reason to go. I told her I’d have access. Guaranteed. This move might sound arrogant or dishonest but I didn’t see it as either. It was a calculated guess that, based on my experience with the Martins, I would be able to get the photos we needed. At least I hoped I would.

In Vegas there were far more people to deal with than just the Martins. There were the fight promoters, the public relations people from Showtime which was doing the pay-per-view, the MGM Grand people, Don King, Don King’s people, and Mike Tyson’s people (Mike wasn’t a problem because he never talked to anyone).

I started working as soon as we arrived at the MGM Grand. Don King was holding a press conference to give Christy a BMW. That evening she held a workout in the ring followed the next day by a press conference. Throughout the process, I could follow her as close as possible. The best news came when I picked up the credentials for the fight. The pass was for ring side, about six feet from Christy’s corner. I wouldn’t be needing the telephoto 600mm lens sitting in my hotel room. Then, I was lucky to run into a Showtime P.R. flak in the elevator the day before the fight. He told me Christy was going running in a half hour and that lead to the photo of her running past the glitzy Vegas hotels.

The most difficult photo to get was one of Jim wrapping Christy’s hands before the fight. I had been asking about that photo for three days and didn’t get the final "yes" until I walked down the hallway to the dressing room. The Showtime flak put a temporary sticker on my pass to get me in the dressing room and said I could take three pictures. And they meant that literally. I made only three exposures and then I was escorted out. They took back the sticker.

Ringside, I was lucky that the fight lasted four rounds. Boxing is a quick and difficult sport to photograph and the longer fight gave me enough time to make photos. It’s not easy and I have tremendous respect for photographers who make a living at the ring.

After the fight and the post-fight press conference, the Martins invited the writer and I to join them for dinner. We had become part of the entourage in way since we had covered them and only them for the past three days. One of the Martin’s family members even asked Mike and I to sign a fight program along with the rest of the crew.

This dinner was fun. I had come to know both Jim and Christy pretty well by then and it was nice to see them celebrate. But it also gave me the chance to shoot the closing photos of Christy with her shiner and it gave the writer the details he needed to end the story.

Before I left for Vegas, the magazine’s art director said she had plenty of photos of Christy from Orlando so if she only got one Vegas photo, she’d be happy. Vegas went so well (we got the "guaranteed" access) that most of the magazine photos were from the fight. The cover photo was Christy in the ring, raising her hands in triumph after the fight.

Since our story ran in September of 1996, Martin has signed a new contract with Don King that pays her $100,000 per fight. She has had her nose broken in two different fights, but her winning streak continues. Her most recent bout was in December and that victory pushed her record to 34-1-2. Last month she was scheduled to fight on the undercard of a light heavyweight title fight, but her fight was canceled because of a 1940’s-era Mexico City law that forbids women’s boxing.

April 16, 1998

Tom Burton