Vitalii Volodymyrovych Klychko (; ; born 19 July 1971), known as Vitali Klitschko, is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who has served as the mayor of Kyiv since 2014.Vitali Klitschko sworn in as Kyiv mayor , Interfax-Ukraine (5 June 2014) He previously served as the head of the Kyiv City State Administration until the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
As a professional boxer, Klitschko won multiple world heavyweight championships. He held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title from 1999 to 2000, the Ring magazine title from 2004 to 2005, and the World Boxing Council (WBC) title twice between 2004 and 2013. Overall, he defeated 15 opponents in world heavyweight title fights, and made 12 successful title defences. In 2011, Vitali and his younger brother Wladimir Klitschko entered the Guinness World Records as brothers with most world heavyweight title fight wins (30 at the time; 40 as of 2020). From 2006 until 2015, Vitali and Wladimir (also a multiple world champion) dominated heavyweight boxing, a period widely known as the "Klitschko Era" of the division. Klitschko's last fight was in 2012, but he remained the WBC heavyweight champion at age 42 when he announced his retirement in December 2013. Though both of his losses were by stoppage—specifically by corner retirement—Klitschko is only the third heavyweight champion to have finished his boxing career without being knocked down, after Nikolai Valuev and Oliver McCall, and he is thus known for having one of the toughest chins in boxing history.
Klitschko formally began his political career in 2006 when he placed second in the Kyiv mayoral race. In 2010, he founded the party Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR) and was elected for this party the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. He was a leading figure in the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests, and he announced his possible candidacy for the Ukrainian presidency, but later withdrew and endorsed the eventual winner Petro Poroshenko. He was elected Mayor of Kyiv on 25 May 2014.Klitschko officially announced as winner of Kyiv mayor election , Interfax-Ukraine (4 June 2014) He headed the election list of the winner of the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, but gave up his parliamentary seat to stay on as mayor of Kyiv. On 28 August 2015, the UDAR party merged into Petro Poroshenko Bloc,Klitschko becomes leader of Petro Poroshenko Bloc 'Solidarity' party , Interfax-Ukraine (28 August 2015) and Klitschko became the new party leader. Klitschko was reelected as mayor on 15 November 2015.Kyiv Mayor Klitschko reelected with 66.5% of vote, 100% of ballot protocols processed – preliminary data . En.interfax.com.ua Interfax-Ukraine (2015-11-16). Retrieved on 2015-11-29. Klitschko revived UDAR, and left Petro Poroshenko Bloc with it, in May 2019 and simultaneously announced that UDAR would take part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election autonomously. UDAR failed to win any seats.
Klitschko was re-elected to a second term as mayor in the 2020 Kyiv local elections, securing 50.52% of the votes in the first round of voting and thus avoiding a run-off. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Klitschko has become an international symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
Kickboxing and amateur boxing career Klitschko took up boxing, being trained by former Soviet boxer, 1974 World Championships bronze medalist Anatoliy Klimanov, a head boxing coach of the CSKA Kyiv Sports Club. Soviets assembled their kickboxing team, Klitschko was a member. He was competing in amateur boxing, kickboxing, and sport karate simultaneously, showing considerable success in all combat sports in which he was involved.Vitaly Klitschko Amateur Career (in Spanish) compiled by Pedro Cabrera Isidrón of the Cuban Olympics Committee. Last updated: August 13, 2006.
X Summer Spartakiad of Peoples of the USSR, boxing (+91 kg), Minsk, Belarus SSR, July 1991: 1/2: Lost to Oleg Maskaev (Uzbek SSR) RSC 2 WAKO European Kickboxing Championships, light contact division (+89 kg), Varna, Bulgaria, November 1992:Pele Reid spin kick against V. Klitschko in world championship, Full fight . YouTube. Retrieved 10 July 2014. Finals: Lost to Pelé Reid (England) KO
ISKA World Super Heavyweight Championships, 1994: Finals: Defeated Richard Vince (United Kingdom) KO 2 XVI President's Boxing Cup (+91 kg) Jakarta, Indonesia, February 1994: 1/2: Lost to Christophe Mendy (France) PTS VII Boxing World Cup (+91 kg), Bangkok, Thailand, June 1994: 1/8: Defeated Ahn Jung-hyun (South Korea) RSCH 5 1/4: Lost to Svilen Rusinov (Bulgaria) 9–10 (5 rds) XLI World Military Boxing Championships (+91 kg), Tunis, Tunisia, 1994: Finals: Lost to Alexei Lezin (Russia) 1–10
XXIII Chemistry Cup (+91 kg), Halle, Germany, March 1995: 1/4: Defeated Willi Fischer (Germany) 10–0 1/2: Defeated René Monse (Germany) 9–3 Finals: Defeated Georgi Kandelaki (Georgia) by walkover World Championships (+91 kg), Berlin, Germany, May 1995: 1/16: Defeated Igor Kshinin (Russia) RSC 1 1/8: Defeated Gytis Juškevičius (Lithuania) RSC 2 1/4: Defeated Attila Levin (Sweden) RET 2 1/2: Defeated René Monse (Germany) 6–5 Finals: Lost to Alexei Lezin (Russia) 3–12 Military World Games (+91 kg), Ariccia, Italy, September 1995: 1/8: Defeated Drago Mijić (Croatia) by walkover 1/4: Defeated Kenneth Horsley (United States) RET 1 1/2: Defeated Svilen Rusinov (Bulgaria) RSC 1 Finals: Defeated Alexei Lezin (Russia) 9–4 WAKO European Kickboxing Championships, light contact division (+89 kg), Kyiv, Ukraine, November 1995:Boxing Heavyweight Champion Vitali Klitschko Was A Kickboxer By Nathan Aripez. Finals: Lost to William van Roosmalen (Netherlands) KO
Amateur boxing record: 195 wins (80 knockouts), 15 losses (0 knockouts).
Kickboxing record: 34 wins (22 knockouts), 2 losses (2 knockouts).
He was a kickboxing world champion six times (winning amateur world championships twice and professional championship tournaments four times). In 1996, he finished his amateur boxing career and turned professional, signing with the German-based Universum Box-Promotion (UBP.)
Professional boxing career
As an amateur, Klitschko won the super-heavyweight championship at the first World Military Games in Italy in 1995. In the same year he won a silver medal at the World Championships in Berlin, Germany, where he was defeated by Russia's Alexei Lezin in the final. In his autobiography, published in Germany in 2004, the boxer revealed that he tested positive for a banned steroid in 1996. He attributed the presence of the drug to treatment of a leg injury, but was dismissed from the Ukrainian boxing team and missed the Atlanta Olympics. His brother Wladimir moved up from heavyweight to super heavyweight to take his place in the squad and won the Olympic gold medal.
WBO heavyweight champion
Klitschko began his professional boxing career in 1996, winning his first twenty-four fights by either early knockout or technical knockout. He and Wladimir signed with the German athlete-promotion company Universum. With both brothers holding PhDs 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 26 June 1999, Klitschko won the WBO heavyweight title from Herbie Hide of the United Kingdom by a second-round knockout. He successfully defended the title twice. He defeated Ed Mahone by knockout in the third round and beat Obed Sullivan, who retired after the ninth round.
Title loss to Byrd
By April 2000 Klitschko was unbeaten and a rising star in the heavyweight division, having won all 27 of his contests by knockout. On 1 April, Klitschko had a third title defense against the American Chris Byrd, who was a late replacement. Byrd made himself a difficult target and tried to thwart Klitschko's offense by being elusive. After the ninth round, Klitschko notified his corner that he had a shoulder pain and threw in the towel, thus handing Klitschko his first defeat and awarding Byrd the win by RTD. At the time of the stoppage, Klitschko had won 8 of 9 rounds on one judge's scorecard, and 7 of 9 on the two others. Klitschko, who was later diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff, received much criticism for quitting the fight. Klitschko rebounded from his loss to Byrd by reeling off five victories in a row, earning himself a shot at WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis.
Klitschko vs. Lewis
The fight between Lewis and Klitschko was to take place in December 2003, and Klitschko signed for a tune-up fight on 21 June 2003 as part of the undercard of Lewis's fight with Kirk Johnson for the IBO title, as the WBC would not sanction the fight for their title. Johnson, however, pulled out of the fight due to injury and Klitschko, due to his being in training for a fight on the same day as Lewis, took the fight on short notice. Immediately after he accepted, the WBC elected to sanction the fight as a title match and Lewis's The Ring title was also up for grabs in addition to his lineal title.
Klitschko, a 4–1 underdog, dominated the early going with many harder punches. He stunned Lewis in the second round with two hard rights, leaving a cut under Lewis's left eye. In the third, Lewis landed a big right hand that opened a deep cut above Klitschko's left eye. Before the seventh round, the ringside doctor inspected the wound and deemed it severe enough to threaten eye damage if struck again, stopping the fight despite Klitschko's pleas to continue. Klitschko was ahead on all three judges' scorecards 58–56 (4 rounds to 2) at the time of the stoppage, but because the wound was a result of punches from Lewis, Lewis won by technical knockout.
Negotiations for a 6 December rematch began. After negotiations collapsed, Klitschko defeated Kirk Johnson in a WBC eliminator bout on 6 December date,Vitali Klitschko vs. Kirk Johnson – Boxrec Boxing Encyclopaedia . Boxrec.com. Retrieved 19 April 2011. setting up a mandatory rematch with Lewis. In January 2004, the WBC announced that it would strip Lewis of the belt if he let pass a 15 March deadline to sign for a rematch with Klitschko. Shortly thereafter, Lewis announced his retirement and vacated the title. For years after this fight, Klitschko would occasionally call out Lewis for a rematch, despite the latter having retired in early 2004.
Around this time the Klitschko brothers moved from Hamburg, Germany, to Los Angeles. 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 ultimately resolved in favor of the Klitschkos in November 2009.
WBC and The Ring heavyweight champion
Klitschko faced South African Corrie Sanders on 24 April 2004 for the WBC heavyweight championship and The Ring belts that had been vacated by Lewis. Sanders had stopped younger brother Wladimir in the second round (TKO) on 8 March 2003. Klitschko took a heavy shot in round one by Sanders and was almost knocked down right at the end of the round, but by using upper-body movement and accurate punching he broke down Sanders over the following rounds, forcing referee Jon Schorle to stop the bout in the eighth. Klitschko landed 60% of his power punches.
Klitschko vs. Williams