Vitali Klitschko: The former boxing champion now defending Kyiv as mayor

The former heavyweight title-holder has faced many tough fights in his career – but he and his younger brother, Wladimir, now face an altogether more daunting task, writes Alex Pattle

Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv in his office (AP)

I'll be fighting. I don't have another choice, I have to do that.”

There are many broken – and broke – boxers who emerge from retirement and shuffle to the ring, each unsure step exponentially increasing the distance between the combatant and their prime years. They'll be fighting. They don't have another choice, they have to do that.

But the words above, spoken by former heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, are not the words of a legend reluctantly – even resentfully – returning to the sport for one last payday. In fact, the circumstances could not be more different.

The 50-year-old Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, is fighting for his city. Some have jested that the stoic Klitschko is exactly the kind of person you would want in your corner if you had to go to war, but that is to undermine the gravity of a situation that has led a politician to risk his life in order to serve the citizens that have elected him.

Because that is what Klitschko is: a politician. He is no longer “Dr Ironfist”, the man who compiled a professional boxing record of 45-2, securing 41 of those wins via knockout and retiring as WBC heavyweight champion in 2013.

When Klitschko hung up his gloves, he was already 41 but had not tasted defeat in 10 years. He enjoyed the kind of fighting career that few had crafted before him and even fewer have crafted since. Remarkably, swimming in the small pool of boxers to have achieved the level of success that Klitschko did is his younger brother, Wladimir – a fellow former heavyweight champion who, at 45, enlisted in Ukraine’s reserve army last month, saying that love for his country compelled him to defend it.

It is a strange twist of fate for the brothers to be drawn into a war with Russia, given the service their father, Vladimir, gave as a proud Soviet, rising to become a high-ranking military officer at the same time as he and their mother, Nadezhda, raised Vitali and Wladimir. His position afforded his sons a high-quality education and helped to instill a discipline that contributed towards the effectiveness of their boxing training, which led to their dynastic success in the ring.

Serving as a USSR military commander at an airbase, he was one of the first responders to the nearby Chernobyl power-plant disaster on 26 April 1986. Vladimir repeatedly ventured into the zone around the explosion to aid in organising the clean-up operation, with little understanding of the dangers.

“When the first message came through, the only thing it said was that something bad had happened. The alarm was raised,” he later told the makers of Klitschko, a documentary about his sons’ lives. “I was the leader of an air force unit that was immediately relocated to the scene of the incident.

“From the very beginning, the government tried to cover up the truth and play down the situation. We were given the impression that it wasn’t all that serious. Those who were able to leave Kiev took the opportunity to do so, but if you are a soldier you have to fulfill your duties.”

In 2011, Vladimir died of lymph node cancer at the age of 64, with doctors believing that his illness was linked to his exposure to radiation in Chernobyl. “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,’” Vitali said in the Klitschko documentary.

More than a decade on from their father’s death, the strong military influence that pervaded their childhood is now bleeding back into their lives. Wladimir said in 2011: “When I was 12, I was shooting AK-47s, handling hand grenades, running through underground tunnels, practising drills, and studying how to get along with tank attacks.”

Vitali and Wladimir’s teenage years gave way to different kind of drills, as each boy honed his boxing skills. Vitali also enjoyed kickboxing and karate and achieved great success in those sports as well as in boxing. But he still found time for academic studies, graduating from university in 1996 – the same year he turned professional in the boxing ring – before beginning a postgraduate PhD in sports science. Wladimir secured the same qualification, earning the nickname “Dr Steelhammer” to mirror his brother’s moniker.

By 1999, Vitali had already become a world heavyweight champion, winning the WBO belt from Britain's Herbie Hide in London. That victory also improved the Ukrainian's undefeated record to 25-0, though Vitali would suffer his first pro defeat three fights later in losing the title to Chris Byrd of the US.

Vitali would never get a chance to regain the gold, but he did receive an opportunity to dethrone WBC and IBO champion Lennox Lewis in 2003, having won five fights in a row after his defeat by Byrd. The Briton stopped Vitali in the sixth round in Los Angeles, however, forcing “Dr Ironfist” to wait to reestablish his status as a world champion.

Again Vitali responded to defeat in fine fashion, finishing Canada’s Kirk Johnson in the second round to set up a shot at the vacant WBC title in 2004. Eight rounds in, Vitali secured the TKO against Corrie Sanders, though he would relinquish the belt after retaining it against Samuel Peter, announcing his retirement from the sport in 2005 as he looked to the future – not only his, but also that of his country.

Vitali was appointed as an adviser to Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko and soon ran for the position of mayor of Kyiv. Following two unsuccessful campaigns, the former champion returned to professional boxing, and won back the WBC title in 2008, continuing what would become a 13-fight winning streak that culminated in his second retirement in 2013, when he relinquished the title once more.

One year later, Vitali finally won the Kyiv mayoral election as a representative of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform. He is now approaching the nine-year mark in his mayoral role.

Of all the fights he contested in the ring, however, none can compare to the battle in which Vitali now finds himself. He is fighting for his country, his city, and his family – including his three children and Russian wife Natalia Egorova, a former professional tennis player. Ukraine’s military and volunteer forces have been preparing for an all-out assault of Kyiv, with Vitali saying in recent days that about two million people, or half the metropolitan area’s inhabitants, had left and that “every street, every house is being fortified”.

Vitali is clear as to what they are fighting for. “We see our future as democratic modern country – we are fighting for our values, our principles, our country,” he told BBC 5 Live, thanking European nations for their support.

Vitali and Wladimir never fought one another in the ring, honouring a promise to their mother to remain united in their respective pursuits of boxing greatness.

Now they are more united than ever, fighting for the future of their country. It is a fight that Vitali believes extends far beyond them and even Ukraine: “This war touches everyone in Europe. We fight for the same values.”