Vitali Klitschko

Vitali Vladimirovich Klitschko was born on July 19, 1971 in Belovodsk, Kyrgyzstan. He is a Ukrainian professional heavyweight boxer and the current WBC heavyweight champion.

Klitschko vacated his WBC belt in 2005 due to retirement but announced his comeback in 2007. The WBC awarded Vitali a chance to regain his WBC belt and on October 11, 2008 in Germany he did so by beating Samuel Peter, when Peter retired on his stool at the end of the eighth round, while being behind 80-72 on the judges' scorecards. He has the highest knockout percentage (92%) of any heavyweight champion in overall fights.

His younger brother, Wladimir Klitschko, is the current IBF and WBO world heavyweight champion. Vitali is the first professional boxing world champion to have achieved a PhD (in sports medicine and philosophy).

Boxing Career

Originally a professional kickboxer, Vitali won the super heavyweight championship at the first World Military Games in Italy in 1995. In that same year, he won the silver medal at the 1995 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Berlin Germany, where he was defeated by Russia's Alexei Lezin in the final. His amateur record was 195-15 with 80 knockouts.

He began his professional boxing career in 1996, winning his first twenty-four fights by either early knockout or technical knockout (TKO). He and Wladimir signed with the German athlete-promotion company Universum. With both brothers holding Ph.D.s and being multilingual, their refined and articulate personalities made for mainstream marketability when they moved to Germany and Universum. In time, they became national celebrities in their adopted home country. In his 25th pro fight, on June 26, 1999, Klitschko won the WBO heavyweight title from Herbie Hide of the United Kingdom by a 2nd round knockout.

He defended the title twice before quitting on his stool, thus losing the title on April 1, 2000 to American Chris Byrd. Complaining of shoulder pain, Vitali and his corner decided to concede after the ninth round. Vitali was ahead on all three judges' scorecards (89-82, and 88-83 twice). The way he ended this match brought criticism from some, however Vitali had torn the rotator cuff in his right shoulder and would be out of the ring for almost 8 months after recovering from surgery.

On June 21, 2003, he fought Lennox Lewis for the WBC heavyweight championship in Los Angeles, California. In the 3rd round, Lewis landed a right hand, cutting Klitschko's left eye and the next two rounds were give and take. Before the 7th round, the ringside doctor inspected the wound and thought it severe enough to threaten eye damage if struck again. The doctor stopped the fight despite Klitschko's pleas to continue. Because Vitali's wound was a result of the punches from Lewis, and not a headbutt, the rules stated that Lewis would win by a technical knockout. Though he had lost, Klitschko gained international respect for fighting so well against the heavyweight champion for 6 rounds. Negotiations for a 6 December rematch began, but Lewis retired before the match could take place.

Around this time, the Klitschko brothers moved from Hamburg, Germany to Los Angeles, California.

In January 2004, they notified Universum that they would not re-sign when their contracts expired in April. Universum sued the brothers, arguing that their recent injuries had triggered a clause binding them beyond April. The suit was resolved in late 2004.

Klitschko earned an 8th-round TKO victory over South African Corrie Sanders on April 24, 2004, to capture the World Boxing Council heavyweight championship which had been vacated by Lewis. Sanders had knocked out (2nd Round TKO) younger brother Wladimir on 8 March 2003. This fight was also for The Ring Magazine belt. Klitschko was rocked early by Sanders, but by using movement and strong punching he broke down Sanders and forced the referee to stop the bout.

Vitali Klitschko's first world title defense was against British boxer Danny Williams. Williams had become suddenly marketable from a KO over Mike Tyson in round 4. Klitschko scored a technical knockout against Williams in 8 rounds on December 11, 2004, while wearing an orange cloth to show support for the Ukrainian presidential opposition movement. Klitschko knocked Williams down in the 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 8th rounds before the fight was stopped. Immediately afterward, Klitschko dedicated his victory to democracy in his native Ukraine, and also to the Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, whom he supported in the December 26, 2004, election revote.

On November 9, 2005, Vitali Klitschko announced his retirement from professional boxing and vacated his title. He cited regrets about his suddenly-mounting injuries, a desire to leave the sport while still on top, and political aspirations in his home country of Ukraine. Following his retirement, the WBC conferred "champion emeritus" status on Klitschko, and assured him he would become the mandatory challenger if and when he decided to return. Klitschko retired with a career knockout ratio of 92 percent (34 knockouts in 37 bouts). He has never been knocked down or received a standing count.

He still occasionally calls out Lennox Lewis, who has been retired since early 2004, for a rematch. In the German Bild-Zeitung, he announced on January 24, 2007 his comeback and requested to fight again. But because of a number of health problems, Klitschko backed out from a number of bouts scheduled for him.

The WBC awarded Klitschko a chance to regain his WBC belt and on October 11, 2008 in Germany, which he took advantage of by beating Samuel Peter, when Peter retired on his stool at the end of the eighth round. At the time Klitschko led 80-72 on all three judges' scorecards. The scoring was announced prior to the end of the night as part of the WBC's temporary open scoring system.

The Klitschko brothers are the first siblings in boxing history to simultaneously hold world heavyweight championship belts.

Vitali's brother, Wladimir, is currently scheduled to defend the IBF and WBO title belts against British heavyweight boxer, David Haye on June 20, 2009.

Their father, Vladimir Rodionovich, was a Soviet Air Force Colonel. Their mother is Nadezhda Ulyanovna.

He is married to Natalia Egorova, a former athlete and model. They met in Kiev, Ukraine and got married in April 1996. He has three children, Egor-Daniel, Elizabeth-Victoria and Max (named after the former World Heavyweight Champion Max Schmeling).

In 1996, he graduated from the Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky Pedagogical Institute (Ukraine) and was accepted into the postgraduate study program at Kiev University. On February 29, 2000, he presented his doctoral thesis on "talent and sponsorship in sports" at the Kiev University of Physical Science and Sports, and his Ph.D in Philosophy in Sports Science was conferred.

According to Till Lindemann, the song "Sonne" was originally written as an entrance song for Klitschko, which was also the working title of the song.


The Klitschko brothers have created their own design collection of men's sports and leather clothes with Hugo Boss.


It was revealed that, to fight against swelling, Vitali wraps his fists with wet nappies belonging to his son Max.

Klitschko began campaigning for mayor of Kyiv shortly after his retirement. He lost the 2006 mayoral election to Leonid Chernovetsky but placed second with 26% of the vote, ahead of the incumbent Oleksandr Omelchenko. Klitschko campaigned on an anti-corruption platform associated with Pora party. Analysts stated his relatively late entry into the campaign might have cost him votes. Still, he was elected as a people's deputy to the Kyiv City Council. In the May 2008 Kiev local election he ran again and won 18% of the vote. His party, Vitaliy Klychko Bloc, won 10.61% of the votes and 15 seats and again he was elected into the Kyiv City Council. His campaign hired Rudy Giuliani to consult the campaign. In 2008 he was also appointed to the Ukrainian delegation of the Congress of the Council of Europe.

Both Vitali and his brother are avid chess players. Vitali is a friend of former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik and the two have played, with Kramnik always winning. Vitali has commented that "chess is similar to boxing. You need to develop a strategy, and you need to think two or three steps ahead about what your opponent is doing. You have to be smart. But what's the difference between chess and boxing? In chess, nobody is an expert, but everybody plays. In boxing everybody is an expert, but nobody fights."

Vitali and his brother also have been involved in charitable activities dedicated to support the needs of schools, churches and children. In 2002, the Klitschko brothers announced that they had agreed to work specifically for the UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) which supports more than 180 projects in 87 countries.