Wladimir Volodymyrovych Klitschko is a Ukrainian professional boxer.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on March 25, 1976 in the village of Solnechne, Kazakhstan.
The father of the future boxer, Vladimir Rodionovich, served as an aviation colonel, and his mother, Nadezhda Ulyanovna, worked as a clerk.
Because of his father’s military service, the family often moved, so Volodymyr traveled to many parts of the Soviet Union with his older brother Vitaliy .
In 1985, the family moved to Ukraine.
In 1992, Volodymyr completed his studies at the Brovary School of the Olympic Reserve, and in 1996 he was educated at the Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyi Pedagogical Institute.
Amateur career
Klitschko started boxing training at the age of 13. In a fairly short time, he managed to achieve remarkable results: at the age of 17, he became the European champion among juniors.
During his career in amateur sports, he won the title of champion of Ukraine five times. In 1995, he won gold at the I World Military Games, which were held in Italy, and the next year, in 1996, he became the silver medalist of the European Championship.
Another achievement was the victory at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, where he won a gold medal. He was also awarded the Order “For Courage”.
Professional career
After the triumph at the 1996 Olympics, the Klitschko brothers received a large number of offers from various boxing clubs, including American promoter Don King. However, they decided to cooperate with the German club “UNIVERSUM BOX-PROMOTION”, with which they signed a contract in the fall of the same year.
In the first years in professional sports, the training of the brothers was taken care of by the German coach Fritz Zdunek. Over time, Vladimir began to be coached by Emanuel Steward, who had previously collaborated with the Briton Lennox Lewis.
In the professional ring, he won a number of heavyweight titles. Among them:
- WBC Intercontinental Champion in 1998 and 2000;
- WBA Intercontinental Champion in the periods 1999 – 2000 and 2003;
- European champion in 1999.
In 2000, he became the WBO world champion, which he held until 2003. In 2005 – 2006 he held the title of NABF, and since April 2006 he has been the world champion according to the IBF and IBO versions.
In fights for the most prestigious boxing titles, Klitschko had to enter the ring against strong opponents, including Chris Bird, Charles Shafford, Ray Mercer and Jamil McLane. However, as in any sports career, there were defeats. So, in March 2003, he lost to Corry Sanders in a duel that took place in Hanover, and in April 2004 he suffered another defeat – this time from Lamon Brewster in Las Vegas.
Despite the setbacks, Klitschko managed to return to victories. In particular, he later won confident victories over Chris Bird, Samuel Peter, Calvin Brock and Ray Austin.
In professional boxing, Klitschko had a total of 59 fights. Of these, 56 ended with a victory, and 49 times – by knockout. In his entire career, he suffered only 3 defeats.
On February 23, 2008, Klitschko held one of the main fights in his career – the fight for the title of absolute world champion. The meeting took place at the Madison Square Garden arena in New York. The opponent was the owner of the WBO title – Russian boxer Sultan Ibragimov. After the full 12 rounds, Klitschko won by unanimous decision, becoming the owner of three championship titles at once – according to the WBO, IBF and IBO.
On December 13 of the same year, Klitschko defended his championship titles in a fight against American Hasim Rahman. The fight took place in Mannheim, Germany. In the sixth round, Klitschko knocked down his opponent, but Rahman was able to get up and continued the fight. But already in the seventh round, when Klitschko’s advantage became obvious, and the fight turned into outright dominance, the referee stopped the fight, recording the victory of the Ukrainian fighter.
On June 20, 2009, Klitschko once again defended his championship belts in a fight against the Uzbek boxer Ruslan Chagaev, who had the status of “champion on vacation” according to the WBA. The match took place at the Veltins Arena stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Klitschko dominated throughout the fight and won by technical knockout in the ninth round. For Chagaev, this defeat was the first in his professional career.
On March 20, 2010, Klitschko fought against American boxer Eddie Chambers, in which he again successfully defended his championship belts. The match took place at the Esprit Arena stadium in Dusseldorf (Germany). 12 seconds before the final gong in the last round, Vladimir knocked out his opponent with a left side blow.
On September 11 of the same year, Klitschko again entered the ring – this time his opponent was Samuel Peter from Nigeria, who was called the “Nigerian Nightmare”. The fight took place in Frankfurt am Main at the Commerzbank-Arena stadium. Vladimir dominated from the very beginning, and in the tenth round he knocked out his opponent.
In December, Klitschko was supposed to fight against British boxer Derek Chisora, but two days before the fight he was injured during training, which forced the meeting to be postponed to April 30, 2011.
In July 2012, Klitschko’s second fight took place against the American Thompson, who was a mandatory contender for the IBF title. The Ukrainian boxer ended the fight ahead of schedule, knocking out his opponent in the sixth round.
In November, Klitschko entered the ring against Polish weightlifter Mariusz Wach. In the end, the judges unanimously gave the victory to the Ukrainian champion.
In April 2015, Klitschko had his 64th fight in the professional ring. The opponent was American Bryant Jennings. After the fight, Klitschko won and retained all his titles.
On November 28, in Dusseldorf, the boxer met with Briton Tyson Fury. At the end of twelve rounds, the judges unanimously gave the victory to Fury, as a result of which Vladimir lost all his championship belts.
On April 29, 2017, Klitschko fought against 27-year-old Briton Anthony Joshua and suffered another defeat.
In August of the same year, the athlete announced the end of his professional boxing career.
Marital Status
Klitschko’s first wife was Oleksandra Alidzhanivna Avizova from Kyiv, who worked as a model.
Between 2011 and 2018, Vladimir was in a relationship with American actress Hayden Panettiere. On December 9, 2014, the couple had a daughter, Kaya Evdokia. In August 2018, it became known about their separation.
