Unbelievable Upset: Newcomer Destroys Veteran Champ!
Latvian lightweight hotshot Arturs Ahmetovs (6-1, 2 KOs) stirred the pot big time! He dropped a bombshell tweet—a video of his sparring face-off with the two-division, undisputed world champ, Claressa Shields (14-0, 2 KOs).
This jaw-dropping footage captures the exact moment Ahmetovs floored Shields. The champ broke it down:
"Rewind to 2018. I'm sparring with this dude, and his coach sneakily yanked the stuffing out of his gloves. Why? 'Cause I showed him up earlier. If I'd spilled the beans then, my world title bout would've been up in smoke.
Seventeen years in the ring and never KO'd. Then bam! Knocked down twice in a week. That's no walk of shame for me. But a guy pulling a fast one with his gloves? That's straight-up foul play. He and his coach, Derrick Santos, are bad news for boxing," Shields unloaded.
WBA super lightweight king Rolando Romero couldn't resist a wisecrack about the knockdown. Shields wasn't having any of it:
"I'm gonna whoop you. Just wait till I rock up at the TMT gym. You're toast," Shields fired back.
Romero then wiped his cheeky post off the map.
Spilling the beans from the other corner, Ahmetovs's trainer, Derick Santos, gave his two cents:
"We were in cahoots with Claressa's coach. There's more to the story. Elvis Crespo, their manager, was in the mix. He comes up to me, all worried. Says, 'Claressa's sparring partners are bailing left and right. We're scraping the barrel here, looking at dudes.'
Claressa? She was all over the place, trying to pick a fight, even stepping into his punch. Arthur was green, fresh from the amateur scene. I told him, 'Easy does it. Don't go hammer and tongs, but don't be a punching bag either.' And then, it just happened. She lunges for a right cross and leaves herself wide open for a left hook. Down she goes.
It's a load of hogwash. She's spinning yarns, trying to drag me down with her tall tales. It's not a laughing matter. These are heavy-duty accusations. It's a low blow.
She was livid, already mumbling about the gloves then. John wanted a look-see. Just regular 16-ounce gloves. Nothing fishy," Santos recounted.