Super lightweight sensation Teofimo Lopez is about to square off against unheralded Steve Claggett of Calgary, Alberta, Canada on 29th June at James L. Knight Center, Miami Beach, Florida with Lopez’s WBO super lightweight and Ring Magazine titles on the line. The 12-round fight and the undercard action will unfold live on ESPN+ in the US.

‘The Takeover’ Lopez (20-1, 13 KOs) is one of the best in his division, having defeated Vasyl Lomachenko, and later dethroned Josh Taylor to collect his current title. On the contrary, ‘The Dragon’ Claggett (38-7-2), despite his 16-year long career, hasn’t achieved much, as the upcoming bout will be his first major title fight. He will be looking for an astronomical upset on fight night, something that needs intense training at the gym and the right direction from his coach. So, here’s everything about Claggett’s gym and coach!

Where does Steve Claggett train? Who is his coach?

Calgary-born boxer Steve Claggett trains at the Underdog Boxing Gym in Montreal, Quebec, under the guidance of head coach Mike Moffa. Moffa, who trained at Plaza Saint-Hubert with Vittorio Salvatore, Joe Gatti, and Arturo Gatti, under the watchful eye of Dave Campanile, has a notable boxing history.

In 1985, Moffa defeated Giovanni Parisi at the Junior World Championships at just 17 years old and won the Canadian championship title four years in a row. However, after losing a bout, Moffa lost interest in the sport and retired from professional boxing at 22, after just one year.

Despite this, Moffa continued training under Campanile to become a coach. After Campanile’s passing, Moffa took over training the boxers at the gym. In 2008, he joined the Underdog Gym and has been training promising boxers there ever since. Interestingly, Claggett has also trained at other gyms, including the Golden Stars Boxing Team and Teofista Boxing Gym.

The intriguing story of how Claggett met his boxing coach

After a win over Nazareno Gaston Ruiz in November 2019, Claggett entered an all-Canadian tournament organized by Camille Estephan called the ‘Carré d’As’. That’s where he encountered David Théroux and managed to pull off a sixth round victory to get the opportunity to settle his prior draw against Mathieu Germain.

However, when the two men met in the ring for the second time, Claggett suffered a split decision loss, which led him to get in touch with Germain’s trainer Mike Moffa. More than anything else, Claggett has the itch to learn from his mistakes and that’s what he wanted to do after his seventh loss.

“I contacted Mathieu Germain’s trainer, Mike [Moffa], and told him: ‘What you showed him against me, I want you to teach me how to do it’”, said Claggett. Since the day ‘The Dragon’ found the right trainer, he hasn’t lost a single fight, boasting a eight fight win streak—a first for Claggett. “He’s talented, athletic… for me, it’s just that he didn’t learn the right technique and movements. ‘Is it too late,’ at 34 years old? No, it’s not too late because every month, he adds little things that I teach him,” Moffa added as he praised his protégé. 

When ‘The Dragon’ trained at Floyd Mayweather’s gym

All the way back in 2013, Floyd Mayweather was about to face Canelo Alvarez, and Steve Claggett was getting ready for his showdown against Francesco Cotroni. He spent a few days in the Mayweather gym in Las Vegas, as the atmosphere hyped up because of Floyd’s mega fight with Canelo. 

“My team and I decided that I would come down and do a sparring trip just to get some great work in and bring the momentum back, stay sharp and take care of business come fight night”, Claggett said about training at the Mayweather gym. Turns out his time in the gym paid out big time! He would go on to beat Cotroni back in Canada via a sixth round knockout to acquire the Canadian welterweight title. 

Even though several years have passed since then, Claggett is still holding on to the lessons he learned from that gym. While appearing in an interview with Boxing World back in November 2023, Claggett said, “A lot of the things that I learned in the professional ranks came from being at that gym”. He even added that he would go back and forth from Calgary to the Mayweather gym in Las Vegas multiple times for seven-eight years throughout his career.

All the hard work and all the training with his coach has led Steve Claggett to this moment. He has one shot at greatness—if he defeats Teofimo Lopez at the end of this month, many new doors will open up for him. And perhaps, he could start training permanently in the Mayweather gym. Do you think he could win?