Vitali Klitschko
Dr. Eisenfaust turns 50
Vitali Klitschko is celebrating his 50th birthday.
© imago / ZUMA Press
Vitali Klitschko, ex-boxing world champion and current politician, celebrates his 50th birthday and looks back on a life without real defeat.
This man actually knows no defeat: The former heavyweight world champion and current mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, is 50 years old. The Ukrainian can already look back on an incredible career as an athlete and politician, which is probably unparalleled anywhere in the world.
Vitali Klitschko, the son of a Ukrainian officer and a primary school teacher, was born in a small village in Kyrgyzstan. When his father was stationed in what was then Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s, Klitschko made his first acquaintance with martial arts together with his brother Vladimir, who was around five years his junior. Back in Kiev, the actual home of his father, Vitali started kickboxing and quickly enjoyed success.
Vitali Klitschko was also a kickboxing world champion
What many sports fans don’t know either: Before Klitschko switched to professional boxing in the early 1990s, he was kickboxing world champion a total of six times, and then he was also world champion in amateur boxing. The really big boxing star for Vitali Klitschko then rose in 1999 when, after a series of 24 knockout victories against Herbie Hide, he won the WBO world championship – of course also through a fall in the second round.
In the years 2000 and 2003, his only two bankruptcies as a professional boxer followed, although there, too, one cannot speak of real defeats. First he had to break off a fight due to a torn tendon, and one of the most iconic boxing battles of all time followed three years later. In June 2003 he dueled Lennox Lewis from Britain in a brutal boxing match.
Although Klitschko was in the lead on four of the six judges’ notes, the ring doctor took the Ukrainian out of the fight to his amazement due to several lacerations on Klitschko’s left eye. But also because of this epic duel with Lewis – who, by the way, avoided a rematch by resigning – Vitali had reached the absolute Boxing Olympics and was henceforth the measure of all things.
After winning back the world championship in the premier heavyweight division in 2004, he defended his title three times by knocking out before several injuries – including his back and knee – forced him to take a break of almost four years. However, the 2.03 meter tall athlete returned to the ring in 2008 and seamlessly continued his successes there. In 2012, after another ten mostly clear victories, he hung up his gloves forever.
That’s why there was never a fight against his brother Vladimir
In the end, Klitschko stood in a boxing ring for a professional match 47 times. He left it 45 times as the winner, 41 times of which due to knockout. Two injuries stopped him. By the way: Even if promoters and sponsors offered alleged lunar sums of up to 100 million dollars, the two brothers Vitali and Wladimir never fought. The reason: You swore it to yourself, with regard to your mom Nadja. “Our mother’s heart would not stand such a fight,” said Vladimir once in an interview with the Russian newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets”.
Political career picked up speed after the end of the boxing era
After the end of his career, Klitschko increased his political ambitions. During his active time, he ran for the office of mayor of Kiev in 2006 and 2008. In April 2010 he was elected chairman of the pro-Western party UDAR and its presidential candidate in 2013. However, he withdrew that candidacy in 2014 to focus on the election of Kiev mayor.
In 2014 he moved in as head of the Kiev city hall, in 2015 and 2020 he was re-elected by the population and has held the office without interruption to this day despite numerous turbulent phases in Ukrainian politics. Klitschko also relies on continuity in his private life: Vitali has been married to the former model Natalia Egorowa since 1996. The couple have three children: their son Yegor-Daniel was born in 2000, followed by Elizabeth-Victoria (2002) and Max (2005) – named after the German boxing icon Max Schmeling. “I would always support him and always follow him,” said Natalia Klitschko in an interview with “Welt”.
His academic career proves that Klitschko has always not only been a high-flyer in terms of sport, but also has a lot on his mind. After graduating from high school, he studied sports to become a teacher, and later sports science. He has even had an official doctorate since 2000. The topic of his dissertation was “Sporty Ability and Talent Promotion”.
It remains to be seen whether his commitment will one day lead to the head of state of Ukraine. Vitali Klitschko can be trusted in any case. So far, in his 50-year life, he has at least succeeded in everything he has touched. A defeat seems almost impossible …