Boxing-Wladimir Klitschko

Early Career

Wladimir Klitschko was born in Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union and is the second child of five to his mother, Irena. Wladimir's father, Vladimir Rodionovich Klitschko is a former Ukrainian champion weightlifter for the Soviet Union who now works as a manager for his son's boxing promotions company K2 Promotions.

In 1996, Klitshko won gold at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta as a member of the Ukrainian Olympic team. He turned professional one year later and captured the world heavyweight title in 1999 by knocking out Herbie Hide to win the WBO Heavyweight Title.

Klitschko has been known to fight with very little head movement or footwork because of his size and reach advantage over most opponents. He often stands still and waits for his opponent to punch himself out while looking for openings with which he can counter-attack.

Post-Lennox Lewis Era

Lennox Lewis is a retired professional boxer who competed from 1989 to 2003. He was the undisputed champion of the world after beating Evander Holyfield in 1999, and held the IBF, WBC, WBA (Super), IBO and The Ring heavyweight titles.

Lewis retired in 2003 following his loss to Vitali Klitschko the previous year.

Now we are in the post-Lennox Lewis era. It's been 15 years since he hung up his gloves. And even though it may seem like he left a long time ago, his absence has not been felt as much as you would think. There have been plenty of contenders for the heavyweight crown during that time period, but none have managed to surpass Lewis' legacy or stay at the top for more than a few years before falling out of favor.

Return to the Heavyweight Division

After the Klitschko family announced that Wladimir would be taking a break from boxing until at least December 2017, he was originally scheduled to fight Tyson Fury in July 2017. However, Fury was declared 'medically unfit to fight' on 11 April 2017, officially postponing this bout. As a result, Klitschko's camp announced that he would return to the heavyweight division and is considering fighting Britain's Anthony Joshua or American Deontay Wilder.

"Klitschko wants to complete his legacy," said Bernd Boente, his manager. "He doesn't want people to say he was a champion of the world but then retired without defending some of those belts."

Recent Victories and Losses

In 2016, he defeated the former world champion Tyson Fury to win the unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring magazine heavyweight titles. This win also made Klitschko the first heavyweight boxer ever to hold all four major belts simultaneously, and just the second to do so in history.

In 2017, he became only the third boxer in history to have held three of the world's major heavyweight titles simultaneously. He was unable to fight for another 10 months after this victory because of an injury which required surgery on his hands. Klitschko then lost his title as unified champion against Anthony Joshua by 11th round TKO on April 11th, 2017.

Klitschko is currently scheduled to fight at least one more time before retiring from boxing.

His Brother

Vitali Klitschko

Vitali Klitschko is a former world heavyweight champion and a politician.

He was elected Mayor of Kiev on 25 May 2014, in the 2014

Ukrainian parliamentary election; he is also the leader of the political party

People's Front.

He had previously served as Mayor of Kiev from 2006 to 2010.

Vitali is currently ranked as the third-best active boxer in the

world pound-for-pound by BoxRec.

The two boxers have an intense relationship that has led to a

number of confrontations including physical altercations outside a boxing ring.

They are both highly ranked professional boxers with the same boxing style yet

one is more successful than the other. The brothers hold notable wins over four

reigning world champions: Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, David Haye and Tony

Thompson.

Conclusion

Klitschko is one of the most dominant heavyweight champions in boxing history. His success in the heavyweight division is unrivaled by any other champion. His legacy is cemented in history and he will likely be a top contender for the rest of his career.