An old video of Claressa Shields getting knocked down by a male sparring partner recently raised eyebrows in the boxing world. While in the video, the sparring partner Arturs Ahmetovs is seen landing a clean left hook to Shields’ chin, Claressa claimed Ahmetovs, who trained under coach Derik Santos, cheated as he had removed the padding out of his gloves.

In this context, Shields declared Ahmetovs and Santos were no good for the sport. Additionally, she even claimed she had tried to cut coach Santos with a knife since he permitted Ahmetovs to box with tampered gloves. In this context, Derik Santos has now publicly stated what exactly happened that day with Ahmetovs and Shields.

Coach claims Claressa Shields badmouthed and “fouled” Arturs Ahmetovs while he was being respectful only

According to the statement by coach Derik Santos, initially, Arturs Ahmetovs did not want to spar with Claressa Shields. However, since Shields’ team implored, they agreed to help her through sparring. As per Santos, before the knockdown occurred, Shields had already sparred two rounds with Ahmetovs who wore the same pair of gloves throughout the session. In fact, as coach Derik claimed Arturs was even “instructed not to hit her hard.”

Likewise, Santos wrote, “She [Claressa Shields] is full of s**t. No one took padding out of the gloves.” In addition, he claimed that after sparring for two rounds, Shields started to talk “mad s**t” and even “tripped him” with a foul. As a result, a confused Ahmetovs was finally advised to punch “multi-time champ” Claressa Shields. Anyway, after Shields fell on her back, Ahmetovs even tried to help her up.

According to Santos, Ahmetovs treated Shields respectfully and said nothing “derogatory towards her” either. In addition, Shields’ personal coach had investigated Ahmetovs’ gloves which ‘T-Rex’ claimed were tampered with. “Even her coach said you had your chin up and got caught smh,” Derik concluded.

While coach Derik accused Shields of badmouthing and fowling Arturs Ahmetovs, Shields was glad the latter did not hurt her career.

Shields continues to call Ahmetovs a cheater

Despite the statement by Derik Santos, Shields continued calling Ahmetovs a cheater. Taking to X, in a recent post, Shields wrote that the likes of Ahmetovs and coach Santos could never make her feel any less of a champion. “5 years later I’m still here! You mfs could never and I mean never make me feel any less of a WOMAN & a CHAMPION!,” Shields said.

Read More – Claressa Shields’ Clip Hurting His Male Sparring Partners Puts Internet on Fire After Video of Her Getting Knocked Down Went Viral

In addition, Shields was glad that God was by her side. Anyway, what do you make of Coach Santos’ statements? Do you think Arturs cheated against Shields? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

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