"KIEV 1992..." " Are we rolling?" " Yes." "Wait a minute." "Mom." "Close the window." "I was basically a tall boy," "but I was skinny." "Let's stop." "That's not right." "I need to take a break." "The first professional fight I saw was a heavyweight match." "For the first time in my life," "I heard what it sounds like when a gloved fist strikes a human head." "The sound was so unpleasant." "I thought, 'This is brutal.'" "I was extremely nervous before my first fight." "I was terrified of getting into the ring." "My legs felt weak." "I sensed the crowd." "I knew the danger and was very scared." "It's different in the crowd- not at the center of the action." "It all looks very different from the inside." "Our opponents don't know about our secret weapon." "Even with only one person in the ring, they're fighting two people, and together we are twice as strong." "Your brother gives you extra strength and he gives you extra strength." "No one can stop you." "Fighting is in Vitali's blood." "He was born a fighter, I became one." "As a fighter, or a second, you have so much adrenalin that you develop a kind of tunnel vision and you ignore everything around you." "You think only about your strategy." "It's very dangerous." "A single punch can break your nose or take out your eye." "You can even be killed." "If you're afraid of being injured or damaging your health, if you're not ready to give your all, then you'll never be a success." "I worry when my children are boxing." "It frightens me." "It's their life and they have my blessing, but during their fights I always go out for a walk." "I take my mobile with me, and wait for the call." "CHRIS BYRD" " FORMER HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD" "LAMON BREWSTER" " FORMER" "HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD" "LENNOX LEWIS" " FORMER HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD" "Mom?" "Everything's okay." "He's doing fine." "A small cut under his eye, but nothing serious." "How are you?" "He rang me and asked how I was." "I said I was fine and we chatted." "Then he rang me again." "NADESHDA KLITSCHKO I asked if he'd forgotten something." "And he said, 'To tell you I love you.'" "That's what he's like." "Vitali and I were at the airport one day." "A man and his son were standing next to us." "WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO, SR." "When the boy saw Vitali he asked," "'Is that the real Vitali Klitschko?" "'Can I touch him?" "'" "It was very special for him." "I could see the happiness in the boy's eyes." "Many people immediately feel very fond of my sons." "EMANUEL STEWARD COACH OF WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO I was born in Central Asia in the summer of 1971, but I am Ukrainian." "I come from a military family, stationed in different places all over the Soviet Union." "KAZAKHSTAN" " ZHANGIZTOBE NEAR THE CHINESE BORDER I was a working mother." "Vitali was six years old and Vovchik was one year old." "Wladimir's pet name is Vovchik." "Vitali had to take care of Wladimir." "I had flexible working hours so I'd go home to make them lunch and then I'd go back to work and leave them alone together." "It was a big responsibility." "I had to take my little brother with me wherever I went and I still have to look after him today." "Nowadays, when I give my little brother a few tips, and he says, 'Stop fussing." "I know that, Vitali.'" "I tell him, 'When I was little, 'our parents gave me the job of looking after you." "'They haven't told me to stop yet.'" "So I'm still doing it today." "I know that lots of people can barely tell the brothers apart." "Many people think they're twins," "NATALIYA KLITSCHKO WIFE OF VITALI KLITSCHKO but really they're very different." "When Vitali gets something into his head, he'll follow it through." "Wladimir has his own goals, too, but he's a lot more cautious and diplomatic." "Crazy." "Due to my father's job we moved around a lot from one place to the next." "So I attended a lot of different schools." "At each new garrison school that Vitali went to, he would get teased and picked on." "All I could do was to teach my eldest son how to stand up for himself." "I drummed it into him that if he was going to fight, then he had to win." "Losing was not an option." "We never dreamed that one day our children would be professional boxers." "One day, a mother came to see us at home." "Her son had a broken nose." "I asked how it had happened, but he just stood there in silence." "So I told Vitali to apologize." "When he said that he wouldn't, I asked him why, and he said, 'He deserved it." "'He threw my hat in a puddle after I'd warned him not to." "'When he did it again, I punched him.'" "UKRAINE" " KIEV FORMER MILITARY AIRBASE" " ZHULYANY" "My father was transferred here to Kiev from Prague in the former Czechoslovakia." "Just for a couple of weeks." "Then we were supposed to get a flat in the city." "That couple of weeks turned into exactly two years." "For those two years, we lived in this room." "Five of us:" "my grandmother, mother, father and brother." "My uncle, too, sometimes." "We had that room, and a kitchen that was here." "There was a dividing wall, which isn't there anymore." "So this was the kitchen." "No shower and no toilet." "The toilet was outside." "It was in this corridor that Vitali said," "'Wladimir, put the gloves on." "Let's do some boxing.'" "I was just 10 or 11 years old." "I was standing just here." "I remember like it was yesterday." "Vitali was standing opposite and he punched me." "I didn't like that at all." "It made me scared of boxing." "I often took them shooting at the military base." "I showed them how to handle a weapon, how to load a pistol, aim properly and work the trigger." "Of course, Vitali was the one who was always getting into trouble." "He messed around with lots of things." "One time, on a military base, we found some grenades and live ammunition." "We threw them into a fire." "It made a lot of noise." "It was fun." "One time we found an anti-tank mine." "It was a huge disc." "I took it home with me and the only place I could find to hide it was under my father's bed." "I went to bed and then I heard my father shouting." "He came to me and grabbed me by the ear." "He said, 'What is that?" "' I said, 'It's a mine.'" "'Did you bring it in here?" "' I said, 'Yes.'" "Our parents were strict, so he ended up paying for that with a belt on his bottom." "Comrade Colonel." "Reporting for duty in the clean-up operation at Chernobyl." "The first report just said that something bad had happened." "The alarm was raised." "I was the leader of an air force unit that was immediately relocated to the scene of the incident." "CHERNOBYL April 1986" "Directly after the explosion, several workers were sent to the scene of the accident." "Using just their bare hands, they had to clear the radioactive debris." "Come on, we're going." "You, too, get out of here." "We dropped lead onto the reactor until it was completely covered." "They flew day and night." "Their flight path was exactly 100 meters from here, so we heard them day and night." "But after a while you stopped hearing them, because you'd got so used to the sound." "From the very beginning, the government tried to cover up the truth and play down the situation." "We were given the impression that it was all under control." "The vehicles and helicopters then came back here and first had to be washed down." "All of the radioactive water flowed into huge pools and I played in those pools with my paper boats." "It was a huge tragedy." "Children were evacuated as a first priority." "We sent Wladimir to a holiday camp on the Sea of Azov." "Those who were able to leave Kiev took the opportunity to do so, but if you're a soldier you have to fulfill your duties." "Many of my comrades received fatal doses of radiation." "They're no longer alive." "Our father spent a lot of time at Chernobyl and Chernobyl got him, too, in the end." "The doctors said," "'It's the result of Chernobyl." "'Cancer.'" "This is our gallery with all our photos." "Chuck Norris came to visit us once." "Western martial arts were banned for a long time in the Soviet Union." "You could be prosecuted for practicing them." "We were even banned from watching western martial arts films but as everyone knows," "ANDREJ SCHISTOW KICKBOXING COACH forbidden fruits taste the sweetest." "We were crazy about that sport." "We went to karate lessons and our parents made us kimonos out of some white cloth." "We were always screaming 'Kiai.' and running around everywhere." "We got wooden boards and tried to smash them." "They had posters of western stars in their rooms, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris." "All of their idols were wonderfully athletic and my children wanted to be exactly like them." "Their room was plastered with photos and posters." "One day some boys turned up to one of my illegal training sessions." "As I was showing them the basics, one boy wasn't following me." "He was completely uncoordinated in his movements." "If you told him to go left, he would go right." "He always did the opposite of what he was told." "That was the first time I met Vitali Klitschko." "THE KICKBOXING BAN IN THE SOVIET UNION IS ABOLISHED IN 1989" "He became Ukrainian heavyweight champion and then champion of the Soviet Union." "Then we were invited to a contest in America." "The USA versus the Soviet team." "FLORIDA WEST PALM BEACH I was brainwashed when I was growing up." "Every morning at school we had to write about all the bad things in America." "America was our enemy." "America meant capitalism, where people treated others like slaves." "We'd been fed all that since kindergarten." "It was like a trip to the moon." "We had heard a lot about Coca-Cola and when I tasted it for the first time," "I felt I could drink a whole bucket." "I was completely knocked out." "We could spend all day in shopping malls with our mouths hanging open, looking around us." "Of course, we didn't have any money." "We just wanted to take in all the smells and be able to touch things." "How can there be 100 different types of cheese?" "That's madness." "There's only one type of cheese." "It's called cheese." "But they had 100 different types." "I couldn't understand it." "Why did they need so many shoes?" "One pair is enough." "Okay, maybe two pairs, one for sport." "When I got back, I said to my father, who was a Communist," "'Dad, they've been telling us complete nonsense every day." "'It's such a lovely country." "The people are so friendly.'" "I remember him saying," "'No, they just showed you the good side." "'They'll use that as propaganda." "America is a dreadful place.'" "My parents like living here in Florida in winter because it's cold in the Ukraine." "I understand what my father went through." "Today he has a different view of the world." "He comes to Florida for his holidays." "He doesn't just like the weather but also the people and the country itself." "KIEV CSKA" " ARMY SPORTS CLUB" "Vitali came from the world of kickboxing." "He was athletic but only weighed 90 kilograms." "I soon realized it would be difficult for Vitali in the world of real boxing." "WLADIMIR ZOLOTAREW" " BOXING COACH, ARMY SPORTS CLUB" " KIEV" "He couldn't even do a lap without getting a stitch." "Vitali, don't go so fast." "Shut up." "Vitali laughs and says I used to torture him." "In a way, that's perfectly true." "But the result is pretty good." "Vadim, my trainer, made me a lot stronger." "It was really tough." "I wanted to stop because I couldn't go on." "I didn't want to go to training," "I was sick of all the strain." "My body was saying, 'No,' and my brain was saying, 'You don't need this.'" "But I carried on anyway." "It was really tough." "At some point Vitali asked if he could bring his little brother along." "'Of course you can,' I said." "From then on, they always came together." "How can you compare" "Vitali and Wladimir?" "Vitali is made of stone and Wladimir is made of clay." "When I taught Vitali something new, it would take a while for him to perfect the move." "Carving stone takes time." "Wladimir was easier to mould, but he would weather more quickly." "They are two distinct fighters and needed different approaches." "I first met them in a disco in 1993." "An American place in downtown Kiev." "FALK NEBIGER FRIEND FROM KIEV" "The boys drove up in a Lada, a car that was all the rage." "The name of the color was Wet Asphalt." "It was the coolest car on the market." "They sat there in their tracksuits and then came into the disco." "It was the place to be in the Ukraine at that time." "We called them The Panthers because they moved through the disco just like panthers, with all the girls saying, 'Hey, it's the Klitschkos.'" "They were less well known then but were very recognizable as brothers - and as big guys who moved like panthers." "I don't think they danced but they played pool and they threw the right glances in the right directions." "A lot of people had left Kiev at that time." "After the collapse of the Soviet Union many educated people, businessmen and so on saw no future for themselves here." "So they left Kiev and emigrated somewhere." "It was a difficult time in the Ukraine." "There were a lot of problems." "The economy had failed, the Soviet system had collapsed with no replacement at the time." "There were no laws, no rules, nothing at all." "Social problems were rife." "Many professional athletes turned to crime." "Gangs of thugs would mug people in the street." "They were real gangsters." "Because I was a strong boy, I often used to hear things like:" "'Hey, you've got what it takes." "'You don't need to go to school." "We can use you.'" "Those are the kind of offers I used to get." "But it's not all about easy money." "You need to know exactly what you want out of life." "GERMANY FLENSBURG BOXING CLUB" "The center of the ring was here." "The ring started at this green line and went to here." "The ring was five meters square." "A team of between 11 and 15 boxers needs a few substitutes in case someone drops out." "Every match is about winning so you can't afford losers." "NORBERT ZEWUHN" " FORMER MANAGER FLENSBURG BOXING CLUB, GERMANY" "We went to the World Amateur Championship in Berlin to see who was available." "BERLIN 1995" "We really liked Vitali Klitschko from the Ukraine and asked him to fight for us in the German Boxing League starting in November." "He agreed but before the season began, he fought in Bangkok at the Military Championships and received a ban." "We found out three weeks before the season opened." "We'd already paid all the expenses and Vitali had been to visit us in Flensburg." "His name was in our programs, but he wasn't able to come." "We were in a very tight spot." "We put a telephone call through to the Ukraine." "They told us something that we could hardly believe." "They said, 'No need to panic." "'We've got a guy who looks like him and he's just as good.'" "We had no alternative so we went to the airport and someone came out who looked just like Vitali Klitschko, the one we'd actually signed up." "How could there be two people who look so alike?" "We didn't know he had a brother." "They didn't say they'd be sending his brother, just that they had someone who looked like him." "A new dimension to league boxing in Flensburg." "The undisputed star is from the Ukraine, the 19-year-old Wladimir Klitschko." "The match was over within a minute." "Wladimir Klitschko has lost only 10 of his 121 matches to date." "An Olympic hope for the Ukraine." "We kept an eye on the Olympic Games because we'd already signed him up for another season." "He won the gold medal, which was fantastic." "We were proud to have a heavyweight Olympic champion on the Flensburg team." "We were already thinking about building a new hall because instead of 1,200 spectators we were now expecting more like 4,000." "Then the news came that both the Klitschko brothers were turning professional." "So that was the end of that." "When Wladimir won the gold medal at the Olympics the man next to me said, 'Congratulations." "'Here, take my mobile." "'Don King wants to talk to you.'" "I was very surprised to be suddenly talking to Don King." "Don King." "The man who promoted Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson." "Talking to me." "I was in shock." "I spoke to Wladimir about it later and we decided to fly over and visit Don King." "LAMON BREWSTER" " FORMER" "HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD" "How would we get these mountains of gold?" "I didn't understand." "He told us just to sign." "And I thought to myself, 'No.'" "I said, 'Wladimir, we don't have to sign anything.'" "He sat down and started playing like a professional." "We were impressed and thought, 'What a multi-talented person." "'He's not just a boxing promoter." "He's an artist, too.'" "DON KING PLAYS: 'DON GIOVANNI - OVERTURE,' W. A. MOZART" "Yes, he really was an artist." "I walked around the side and saw that it was all a fake." "The piano was playing itself." "I could see one of the pedals moving without him touching it." "That's right." "I am a Berliner." "He was certainly an actor." "We decided to turn him down." "We didn't want the deal." "He wasn't an honest person." "HAMBURG 1996 It's normal for a heavyweight Olympic champion to get offers from all over the place," "KLAUS-PETER KOHL BOXING PROMOTER but we had already built up quite a close relationship." "Power." "Get to it." "Come on, jab." "Yes." "There are several ways of training up boxers, but Wladimir was very young and had no professional experience and neither did Vitali." "You can spar and train all you want, but it's not the same as a fight." "PROFESSIONAL BOXING DEBUT NOVEMBER 16th, 1996" "At my first professional match, with my torso bare," "I had small gloves and no protection at all." "I really had to grit my teeth." "I felt my whole body tingling." "You can feel the heat of the lights that are shining on you." "Your opponent is there, and something clicks, and then you're off." "My hands felt very solid and I could sense the amazing power in my fists due to my hand wraps and all the new equipment that you have as a professional boxer." "Suddenly it all happened very fast and he was on the floor." "In my head I was saying, 'Don't get up.'" "I had this killer instinct in me." "'Don't get up." "I'll kill you." "Don't get up.'" "He got up." "A short right hook." "It's a direct hit." "Take the mouth guard out." "I thought, 'Okay, we're just boxing.'" "But I didn't expect to knock him out." "It gives you a certain kick, knowing what you're capable of." "I tasted blood, so to speak." "Winning by KO in the first round after one minute and 36 seconds," "Wladimir Klitschko." "Ladies and gentlemen," "I think we're going to have fun with the Klitschko brothers." "From the very beginning they were always asking," "'What is the plan?" "' and 'What are we doing next?" "'" "The plan was to make them both world champions." "From the start, I knew they had what it took." "They weren't taken seriously because they were so tall and so different from each other." "When they became professionals and started knocking everybody out, often both on the same night at the same event," "HARTMUT SCHERZER SPORTS JOURNALIST that's when you really noticed that they were like forces of nature." "Vitali has an unconventional style." "His brother thinks it's terrible." "It's impossible to second guess Vitali." "He fights like a cowboy." "His fists hang at his hips, then he suddenly draws the gun." "He has great reflexes." "He doesn't avoid punches by keeping his guard up, but instead by just using his reflexes." "Wladimir's style, on the other hand, is more classic." "He has a fantastic left jab, with which he can control the whole match." "That's really his best punch." "Wladimir's boxing is very intelligent." "For him a match is like a game of chess." "That made me realize that they had the ability to become world champions, at least one of them, if not both." "WBO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP HERBIE HIDE vs. VITALI KLITSCHKO" "June 26th, 1999 I'm pleased to say I broke a record." "It's still a Guinness World Record to this day." "I knocked Hide out at the start of the second round and I became World Champion quicker than Mike Tyson." "In terms of the rounds and time it took to win the World Champion title." "DAN RAFAEL BOXING JOURNALIST" "WBO TITLE DEFENSE VITALI KLITSCHKO vs. CHRIS BYRD" "April 1st, 2000" "CHRIS BYRD" " FORMER HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD I think Vitali had a phase where he believed that his body was saying 'No.'" "It was his biggest handicap and that's what happened when he fought Chris Byrd." "In the third round I took a punch or I did some kind of movement after which I had intense pain in my shoulder." "I could only half see my opponent." "There was a mist in front of my eyes." "The pain was getting worse and worse and I could feel that I was getting weaker." "LARRY MERCHANT TELEVISION BOXING ANALYST" "The rims of his eyes were black from the pain." "When I see that one of my fighters isn't able to defend himself or he has no chance," "I end the fight." "FRITZ SDUNEK COACH OF VITALI KLITSCHKO" "The boxer's pain is my pain, too." "I know them well enough to judge how much longer I can let them stay in the ring." "Afterwards I went to see Vitali." "He was alone at home with the newspapers." "They had labeled him a wimp." "He needed psychological support." "We talked and I said," "'Vitali, we must organize a press conference for today.'" "The doctors had said that if he'd carried on his supraspinatus tendon would have been destroyed and his career would have been over." "At that point I received a letter from Max Schmeling." "That helped me a lot, mentally." "Max wrote," "'I've hit rock bottom countless times in my life, 'but the important thing is that you never stay there." "'You have to find the strength to get up and carry on.'" "'THE BROTHER'S REVENGE' WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO vs. CHRIS BYRD" "October 14th, 2000" "First of all: we're not wimps." "And secondly:" "I'm World Champion at the moment." "And thirdly:" "I love my brother." "Thank you." "The title was back in the family, this time thanks to Wladimir." "One brother always made up for the other brother's defeats, and put everything to rights again within the family." "Max Schmeling was definitely an inspiration to me, inside the ring and even more so outside of it." "I'm really happy that we became friends." "Max said to us," "'Boys, if you want to be real world champions, 'you'll have to go to the USA." "'Go and box in the USA.'" "LOS ANGELES LENNOX LEWIS vs. VITALI KLITSCHKO" "June 21st, 2003" "We were preparing for a different kind of boxer and we got a message, whilst training in Los Angeles, saying that Lennox's opponent couldn't fight and asking whether we could step in." "We said that wouldn't be a problem." "The fight was three weeks away." "We found new sparring partners and got busy preparing." "Vitali was raring to go." "UNTIL HIS RETIREMENT IN 2004," "LENNOX LEWIS WAS COACHED BY EMANUEL STEWARD" "The change of mood in the hall was just amazing." "At first they were against Vitali." "Suddenly everyone was screaming, 'Yeah, Klitschko." "Klitschko.'" "DR PEARLMAN HICKS" "PLASTIC SURGEON AND RINGSIDE DOCTOR" "Use your left and then dodge." "Step to the side." "The wound Vitali had above his eye was so deep that the swab was disappearing inside it." "Just watching the footage is painful." "I don't have good memories of that moment." "The ring doctor had a look at it and said, 'Stop the fight.'" "I think that everyone in the hall wanted the fight to go on." "I then realized that the injury was serious and that they did it for his own good." "All respect to the doctor for standing up to Vitali's brother and Vitali himself, who was ready to tear him apart." "Boxing is no joke." "It's brutal and dangerous." "What I want is for people to see both sides." "They go to an event and underestimate the opponent." "Each and every opponent is dangerous." "That's been proven time and again, like when legendary boxer Max Schmeling beat Joe Louis, who was unbeaten at that point." "That was a surprise." "Like Mike Tyson in Japan losing against Buster Douglas or when I lost against Corrie Sanders." "He was supposedly past it and no one thought he had it in him." "There are lots of cases in heavyweight boxing where one punch can decide everything." "WBO TITLE DEFENCE" "WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO vs. CORRIE SANDERS" "March 8th, 2003 I lay there on the canvas and I was so angry." "I thought, 'You squirt." "You can't do that to me.'" "My ego had been bulldozed." "I wanted revenge." "Wladimir's mistake was that he didn't use his jab and wait for the right moment." "Instead, he thought, 'I can't believe it." "He got me.'" "BERND BÖNTE" "MANAGER OF THE KLITSCHKO BROTHERS" "And he just went straight at him without blocking." "Corrie Sanders was a real pro." "He was just waiting for that and he can punch like a horse." "It doesn't matter if a boxer is seen as the underdog." "Any boxer with enough power in his punch can end the fight with a single blow, and that one second can turn the fight around." "LAMON BREWSTER BLINDED AFTER A FIGHT" "AGAINST ROBERT HELENIUS IN 2010" "A year later I got a chance at the world title again." "I trained for it in Los Angeles, together with Vitali." "We both wanted to become world champions at the same time." "That had never happened before in the history of heavyweight boxing." "In terms of technique, Brewster was a good match for me." "WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO vs. LAMON BREWSTER" " April 10th, 2004" "Then I heard the bell and the referee came between us, and I felt my balance going." "I had to keep moving to stay upright." "I stumbled over the referee's foot and was down." "Then I just felt I couldn't get up any more." "This woman was looking into my eyes." "I couldn't keep my head up or open my eyes properly." "She just said," "'His pupils are dilated." "'I think he's had a brain haemorrhage.'" "I remember being in the ambulance and hearing the siren." "My brother was next to me and I couldn't speak, but I just about managed to say," "'I'm sorry, brother." "I messed up.'" "I saw a new side to Vitali." "He wanted to spare my feelings, so he decided not to tell me the whole truth." "He carried the burden of it all on his own." "An hour later, I woke up." "I was able to speak again." "I got up and left the hospital." "The next morning Vitali and I were on the plane and Vitali said, 'Take a look in the mirror." "'I think that's the end of your boxing career." "'Think about it long and hard, but I think it's over.'" "AUSTRIA" " GOING TRAINING CAMP" "Vitali had no belief in his brother after that." "That was a low point for him." "He replaced his entire team." "'We do everything my way from now on,' he said." "'I have to develop my strengths and my team." "'I'm the sportsman." "What's important is what I want." "'It's me in the ring." "My team has to back me.'" "I think I'm the only one left from that team." "Wladimir loves people saying nice things about him." "He doesn't like criticism very much, but I love it, because it gives you the chance to develop yourself." "So I arrived at the training camp, and watched the sparring session." "Wladimir wasn't on good form." "His punches kept missing their target." "He was making beginners' mistakes." "His trainer said, 'Excellent, wonderful.'" "Afterwards, I said, 'Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.'" "'What was excellent?" "It was dreadful." "'I didn't like it at all.'" "Afterwards I made a big fuss." "The trainer shouldn't flatter him." "He was always making comments." "He always butted in, going on and on and on." "Then we started to argue with each other and for the first time in our lives we yelled at each other." "We had a big row." "'Until you turned up here at the training camp, 'everything was fine, and now you don't like it.'" "We had a huge fight and afterwards Wladimir said, 'Vitali, do me a favor." "'Don't be angry, 'but I don't want you at the training camp." "'I'll do it on my own.'" "I said, 'You're a grown-up." "'I know you have a good team." "'You don't need your brother here." "I don't want to bother you.'" "DAVID WILLIAMS CAMP MANAGER" "Nobody touches the barbecue but me." "I love barbecuing." "David showed me how it's done." "I used to have no idea how to do it." "But after four years of practice," "I'm pretty good." "ATLANTIC CITY September 24th, 2005" "Peter was unbeaten and had knocked everyone out." "He'd won maybe two bouts on points." "He'd knocked out 25 or 30 of his opponents." "Peter had stated his feelings clearly:" "Well, I already had gray hair, but watching that fight certainly didn't help." "That was extreme." "One, two, and you'll have him." "Keep at him." "Again." "Again, Vova." "Peter was incredibly strong." "I hit him again and again." "I really let him have it." "I couldn't knock him out." "He moved fast and hit back, keeping me on my guard." "He was down and up again in no time." "He was floored three times, twice by illegal punches to the back of his head." "Jab." "Vova." "Vova." "Vovuchka." "Out of the corner." "The third punch was a direct hit and it showed that Wladimir could still take it, contrary to what some experts thought." "He took that punch, even though he was very shaky." "Jab." "Move to the side." "Let him have it." "I then landed a left hook and he couldn't take it." "To this day, I'm still amazed he managed to stay on his feet." "He swayed from side to side like a kastanka." "A kastanka is a doll with a weight at its base." "Push it and it sways back and forth." "I have great respect for Wladimir." "The real champions are the guys who get knocked out and really hit rock bottom and then have the strength to fight back to the top." "HARTMUT SCHERZER SPORTS JOURNALIST I'm a fatalist." "I believe in destiny." "I wanted to fight, so I went to the training camp." "I got a slipped disc." "I needed another operation." "After that, I got one injury after another." "I didn't fight for at least a year and a half." "My enemy, my opponent, was my body." "Then he had problems with his knee and with his back." "He was preparing intensively for the Hasim Rahman fight which would have been pay-per-view in the US." "It was the highest purse in my boxing career:" "10 million dollars." "And the week before, in the last training session, he tore a knee ligament." "He insisted on going ahead with a bandage on his knee." "He tried it out, but I said, 'Vitali, it won't work." "'Imagine you're boxing and you step backwards... 'and collapse without being hit." "'You'll look like a fraud." "They'll never accept you after that." "'They'll think you did it for the cash." "'We don't need to do that to ourselves.'" "If you can't change something, there's no use getting worked up." "So I said," "'That's it.'" "Both I and his parents talked to Vitali and said:" "'Maybe it would be better if you went into something else." "NATALIYA KLITSCHKO WIFE OF VITALI KLITSCHKO..." "'Does it have to be politics?" "It's such a thankless task.'" "But he said, 'I've made my decision." "I'm sticking to it.'" "The Ukraine has huge potential." "But sadly it's not really being developed." "Corruption continues to hold the country back." "It's embarrassing to read the statistics:" "the Ukraine is the world's most corrupt country." "The MPs have immunity." "They have no qualms about hunting people down." "We've seen many brutal examples." "The democratic powers aren't capable of changing things." "They're not able to get together" "ANNA STAROSTENKO" " POLITICAL ASSOCIATE OF VITALI KLITSCHKO to push through reforms in the Ukraine." "I think that's why Vitali decided that he had to set up his own party, a completely different one, based on western principles." "KIEV CITY COUNCIL" "Vitali Klitschko has 15 members of parliament." "Not many, considering there are 120 MPs altogether, but nevertheless, we're the third-largest group." "Chernovetsky, the mayor of Kiev, and his parliamentary group make money from their political decisions." "Quite often they're unlawful decisions." "So we decided to occupy the rostrum." "Along came Chernovetsky's delegates and they tried to throw Vitali out." "I told them," "'Anyone who tries to attack me again... 'will get the same response as before:" ""Keep your distance'.'" "Here, people often go into politics to make money, that's their main goal." "In Vitali's case, it's completely the opposite." "He always gives 130% and he's twice come second in the mayoral elections." "You've got to admire his courage and energy, but it's a bit like Don Quixote tilting windmills." "FALK NEBIGER FRIEND FROM KIEV" "That's a good image." "It's really stressful, both psychologically and physically, but just thinking about why I'm doing it is a huge motivation to carry on." "After fighting Samuel Peter I was the No. 1 contender, but I wasn't allowed to fight the world champion." "They wouldn't let me." "I spent crazy sums of money on lawyers in the US." "I sued the IBF and Don King." "I had to fight for my rights." "It finally worked, and the preparations went like a dream." "My boxing became logical." "When I was younger, it was like:" "'I'm in the ring, I'll start boxing and hope to get a good punch in.'" "I now fight tactically, following a specific strategy." "Since 2005 it hasn't been boxing but chess, pure and simple." "IBF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CHRIS BYRD vs. WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO" "April 22nd, 2006" "JUSTIN BYRD SON OF CHRIS BYRD" "That was the breakthrough in the US." "Since then he hasn't lost a fight." "He pulled himself out of his 'swamp', like Baron Münchhausen, you could say, and rose up like a phoenix from the ashes." "He wanted to show his brother." "From being the little brother, always having to obey Vitali, he became an equal partner in the Klitschko duo." "He's still a long way off winning." "A long way." "I always secretly hoped that Vitali would make a comeback, but no one expected it, what with all the injuries he'd had, and the operations." "He has such a strong will and such a high pain threshold." "He came to me and said, 'Fritz, I need your help." "'Can you test me?" "I want to box again.'" "The family was shocked." "Everyone tried to talk him out of it:" "'What?" "Really?" "Why?" "'" "But in retrospect I understand why." "He had never wanted it to end like that." "He wanted to end his career on a high point." "Fritz is more than a coach to me." "He's a close friend." "I can talk to him about everything." "Fritz knows my body better than my wife does." "A lot depends on a boxer's lifestyle, whether they get hit a lot." "And Vitali hardly ever gets hit, unlike other boxers, who have to stop because they'd ruin their health if they carried on." "WBC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SAMUEL PETER vs. VITALI KLITSCHKO" "October 11th, 2008 I wanted them to be world champions at the same time." "Sadly, it didn't happen in my time with them, but I was so glad when they did finally achieve it." "KLAUS-PETER KOHL BOXING PROMOTER It was our dream from the outset." "I'm very happy it came true." "It was great." "And the celebrations." "No cigar has ever tasted as good as that victory cigar that we treated ourselves to." "It was just incredible." "We looked back in amazement at how far we'd come in two years." "KIEV GERMAN EMBASSY, 2010 I'll never forget when he rang me:" "'Bernd, you'll never believe it." "'They're awarding me the German Federal Cross of Merit.'" "And I said, 'Brilliant.'" "He said he didn't feel he'd really earned it." "But he's involved in charities and many other projects." "He supports the movement for democracy, and it's all from the heart." "I'm enormously proud of my children." "I'd like to thank the German President and everyone who put Vitali forward for the Federal Cross of Merit." "But above all" "WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO, SR APRIL 24th, 1947" " JULY, 13th, 2011 I thank the German people for all their appreciation." "The Klitschkos are the most intelligent heavyweights ever." "The way they combine strength and sensibility, the killer instinct and intellect." "It's very rare for boxers to have all these qualities." "DAN RAFAEL BOXING JOURNALIST" "LENNOX LEWIS" " FORMER HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD I said to my sons," "'The same blood flows through your veins." "'Never do that." "Not even just for fun.'" "I'll make you an offer." "A draw?" "Okay, but only because you're my brother." "I wouldn't be able to bear the boxing if I didn't have their help." "They often say, 'Mom, you are the centre... 'and we are the satellites around you." "'We're only happy when we know that you're okay.'" "So I can sleep peacefully at night and not worry about them, they've promised me that they will never box against each other." "And they've kept their promise to this day."