Claressa Shields has responded to a video clip of her being dropped in sparring with some context of her own.
The undefeated three-weight world champion is known to spar against male fighters, and has called out Keith Thurman for a fight in the past.
It was a competitor from that side of the sport that appears to catch Shields coming in in sparring and put her down.
Video of Arturs Ahmetovs knocking down Claressa Shields in sparring
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In a series of posts on X, the undisputed world middleweight champion accused 6-1 fighter Arturs Ahmetovs of leaking the sparring tape five years after the event and, much more seriously, taking part in the session without padding in his gloves.
Shields believes he did so because she ’embarrassed him’ in an earlier session.
“One thing for sure, if I went public 2018 about how this fellow professional boxer and boxing trainer took his padding out his gloves to spar against me because I embarrassed him earlier that week, it would have jeopardised my upcoming world title fight.”
“I’ve never been Ko’d in 17 years and I’ve been dropped 2x all in a week of each other. I have no shame in that. But for a male fighter to literally take the padding out his gloves, he’s a punk. Him and coach Derrick santos are bad for the sport!”
“I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want my opponent to have information of me getting dropped leading up to my fight. But why keep a video hidden for 5 years [if] you so big and bad? F**k outta here.”
“I have no problem getting caught in sparring it happens and I spar majority Men! But this dude Arthur and his coach Derrick santos were embarrassed and next time we sparred he purposely wore gloves with little to no padding, I can’t make this up. I couldn’t believe it”
Ahmetovs hasn’t boxed in three years, his most notable bout being a second round stoppage at the hands of current super-lightweight world champion Rolando Romero.