Footage of Claressa Shields, the self-proclaimed greatest women’s boxer of all time, getting dropped during a sparring session has surfaced five years following the incident.
With an undefeated run of 14 straight wins, Claressa Shields holds the record for becoming a two and three-weight world champion in the fewest professional fights, capturing the undisputed light middleweight, undisputed middleweight, and unified WBC and IBF super middleweight titles. Since then, Shields has tested her mettle in the world of mixed martial arts, but she has often boasted that her skill set would find success against some of the best male boxing world champions.
The footage you’re about to see does not support those claims.
Recently, a short video clip emerged online of Arturs Ahmetovs, a 6-1 boxer who has not competed since 2020, knocking out Claressa Shields during a sparring session in 2018.
Claressa Shields Explains it all
Shortly after the clip went viral, Claressa Shields offered up a scathing response, claiming that Ahmetovs had removed most of the padding from the gloves at some point before sparring with her.
There you go lil sis @Claressashields
pic.twitter.com/CTqHIRopy1
— Mr Tunde Ajayi (@MrTundeAjayi) December 11, 2023
Despite her insistence that she’s not mad about it, her feed on X tells a very different tale.
“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 have no problem getting caught in sparring it happens and I Sparr majority Men! But this dude Arthur and his coach Derrick santos were embarrassed and next time we sparred he purposely wore gloves with no little to no padding, I can’t make this up. I couldn’t believe it“
“Check your sparring partner gloves. People be offended that I do that now. But after being knocked down by a guy who was upset I pieced him up earlier that week, I do it every sparring session since 2018.“
“Let me tell yall something. This coward has had this video for 5 years, the knock down happened 1 week before I fought against Hannah Gabriel’s. Y’all couldn’t wait to jump on this train, but I’m unbothered. This same dude Arthur quit boxing after being knocked out by Rollies.“
Let me tell yall something. This coward has had this video for 5 years, the knock down happened 1 week before I fought against Hannah Gabriel’s. Y’all couldn’t wait to jump on this train, but I’m unbothered. This same dude Arthur quit boxing after being knocked out by Rollies
— Claressa Gwoat Shields (@Claressashields) December 11, 2023
“Y’all be smooth tho, I’m in the gym bout to shed a few more pounds so I can go to Vegas and beat Rollie ass. That b*tch over stepped his boundaries with me.“
After establishing herself as the ‘GWOAT’ of women’s professional boxing, Claressa Shields looked to test out her skills in MMA, signing a three-year deal with the Professional Fighters League in 2020. She competed twice for the promotion, winning her debut via a third-round TKO after her opponent, Brittney Elkin gassed out in the final five. Shields suffered a split decision loss in her sophomore appearance against Abigail Montes.
In November, it was announced that she had signed a new multi-fight deal with the promotion and is expected to return in 2024.