Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko are truly a phenomenon.

The two brothers from Ukraine have written boxing history. Their rise into the Champions League of boxing is unique. But also outside of the ring the two sons of a colonel, who both finished their studies with a PhD in sports education, are intriguing people with their charm and intelligence. They are popular testimonials and use their positive influence to support several charity projects.

Vitali Klitschko

VitaliWhen 13-year-old Vitali put on a pair of boxing gloves for the very first time, nobody could have imagined that he would become one of the greatest heavyweight champions of all time. Vitali started his career as a successful Kickboxer – he became a six-time Kickboxing-World-Champion, twice as an amateur und four times as a professional. It was not before later when Vitali discovered his passion for boxing and quite fast he was very successful too: As an amateur he became Ukrainian Heavyweight Champion three times, champion of the first World Military Games and winner of the silver medal at the amateur world championships. In 1996 Vitali left the amateur stage behind and his professional record since then is impressive: 38 fights, 36 wins with 35 KOs!  Vitali won his first important title on October 24th 1998. In a fight for the European championship he defeated Mario Schießer by TKO in Round 2. This victory paved the way towards his ultimate goal – a shot at the World Heavyweight Title! On June 25th 1999 this dream became reality. After knocking out Herbie Hide in round 2, Vitali had became WBO-Heavyweight Champion of the world!

Unfortunately Vitali lost the WBO-Title on April 21st 2000 to Chris Byrd. In round nine unlucky Vitali had to quit due to a severe injury to his shoulder. Until that moment Vitali was well ahead on all three judges scorecards. But this setback could not slow down his hunger and ambitions and on June 22nd 2003 Vitali got another title shot – this time against Lennox Lewis. But once again good fortune was not on his side. After a fantastic fight, that earned Vitali great sympathies all over the world, the referee stopped the fight on advice of the ringside physician. The reason was a deep cut underneath Vitali´s left eyebrow that may have caused permanent damage if the fight had continued. Once again at the time the fight was stopped, Vitali was leading on the scorecards.

On April 24th 2004 at Staples Center in Los Angeles Vitali fought Corrie Sanders for the belt of the World Boxing Council (WBC). After a difficult and entertaining fight Vitali finally won by TKO in round 8. At the same time he took his successful revenge for the loss his brother Wladimir had suffered against the South African about a year ago. But at the height of his boxing abilities Vitali had to sustain several more injuries. After successfully defending his WBC-Title against Danny Williams, a scheduled title fight against Hasim Rahman had to be postponed several times before finally being cancelled. Vitali was truly plagued by injuries in 2005. After a back-surgery and tears of a meniscus and a cruciate ligament in his right knee Vitali Klitschko decided on November 9th 2005 to retire as reigning WBC-Heavyweight Champion of the world. Consequently Vitali was appointed Champion Emeritus by the WBC, a status that enables him, in case of a comeback, to challenge the current WBC-World Champion right away.

1400 days as Champion Emeritus Vitali Klitschko returned to the boxing ring onOctober, 11, 2008 in Berlin. His opponent was the reigning WBC-Champion, Samuel “The Nigerian Nightmare” Peter from Nigeria. With an impressive performance, Vitali regained the WBC-belt for the second time after 2004 by TKO when Samuel Peter did not return to the ring after round 8. Thus Vitali Klitschko is the fourth boxer alongside Muhammad Ali, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis to win a heavyweight belt for the third time.
Since then, Vitali has sucessfully defended his title against Juan Carlos Gomez and Cristobal Arreola.

Wladimir Klitschko

WladimirWladimir developed his passion for boxing at the age of 14. Only three years later he was already European champion in his age division and started building a successful amateur career that included to be a five time boxing champion of Ukraine and a first place in the Military World Championships. But his outstanding achievement during his amateur career was the gold medal in the super heavyweight division during the Olympic games of 1996 in Atlanta.

Wladimir gave his professional debut on November 16th 1996 against poor Fabian Meza, who was knocked out already in the first round. On September 25th 1999 Wladimir battered a helpless Axel Schulz and became European Heavyweight Champion by knocking out the German in the eight round. He reached his ultimate goal to become Heavyweight Champion of the World by easily outpointing awkward WBO-Champion Chris Byrd on October 14th 2000. Five and a half years later Wladimir and Byrd faced each other in the ring again, this time battling for the IBO- and IBF-Belts. And again the Ukrainian dominated the fight, this time ending the night early and scoring a brutal TKO victory. On February 23rd 2008 Wladimir wrote a piece of boxing history by beating WBO-Champion Sultan Ibragimov over 12 rounds in the first unification bout in almost a decade.