The Shadow
Vitali Klitschko and his younger brother, Wladimir Klitschko, are both former Ukrainian world heavyweight boxing champions now fighting against Russia.
The brothers are in “Guinness World Records” for brothers who won the most world heavyweight championships, Vitali having posted a 45-2 record with 41 knockouts.
Vitali’s knockout ratio of 87.23 percent ranks him second in professional boxing history, slightly behind Rocky Marciano, the only undefeated heavyweight boxing champion. Rocky posted a 49-0 record with an 87.76 percent knockout ratio.
Wladimir, an Olympic gold medalist in 1996 in Atlanta in the super heavyweight division, finished his career with a 64-5 record. He is nearly five years younger than Vitali, the mayor of Kyiv.
Vitali’s only two losses came from injuries, one from a shoulder injury that prevented him from continuing his bout against Chris Boyd in 2000 and again from a cut that he suffered against Lennox Lewis who took Vitali’s title in 2003.
Ahead on all three judges’ scorecards, 120-106, 119-107, and 118-108, against Boyd, Vitali injured his shoulder which resulted in his loss of the WBO heavyweight championship belt.
After losing his title to Lennox Lewis in 2003, Vitali retired and pursued a career in politics in Ukraine.
Wladimir suffered his first loss after winning his first 24 bouts with 21 knockouts. He went on to become a two-time world champion who unified the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and “Ring” magazine titles.
Following their boxing careers, the brothers have become political figures, Vitali as mayor of Kyiv and Wladimir as chief second.
Both have gone on record as vowing to take up arms and fight in the streets of Kyiv against the invading Russians should it become necessary.
The brothers were born in the Soviet Union, Vitali on July 19, 1971 and Wladimir on March 25, 1976, the sons of a Russian general.
Vitali’s amateur record was 190-15, and when combined with his professional record he stands at 235-17 as a boxer.
Vitali and Wladimir’ years in the ring earned them both nicknames, Vitali, “Dr. Ironfist,” and Wladimir’s, “Dr. Steelhammer.”
The brothers’ combined professional boxing career record stands at 110-7, prompting boxing fans around the world to refer to the years they were heavyweight boxers as the “Klitschko Era.”
Now both brothers are pitted as underdogs fighting on the political front against the Russian aggressors to keep Kyiv from falling into the hands of the Russians who launched the current invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Boxing fans are also aware of the last two letters in the brothers’ last name, “ko.”
The two combined to knockout (ko) 94 of their 116 opponents without suffering a single knockout themselves during their careers, only technical knockouts.
The brothers, who became Ukrainian heroes via their heroics in the ring after both surviving Chernobyl, are hoping to help Ukraine remain an independent nation after their country broke away from the Soviet Union during its collapse in 1991.
After Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, the eastern part of Ukraine, in 2014, the Russo-Ukrainian conflict has been ongoing in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, the self-proclaimed names those sections in the Donbas area controlled by Russian separatists, took after Russia’s annexation of the area.
As part of the patriotic movement to defend Ukraine, both brothers have publically stated that they are willing to die for their country by taking up arms to defend it against the Russian invaders.
