Vitalii Volodymyrovych Klychko, known as Vitali Klitschko, is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who serves as mayor of Kyiv and head of the Kyiv City State Administration, having held both offices since June 2014.
100 Facts About Vitali Klitschko
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Vitali Klitschko became actively involved in Ukrainian politics in 2005 and combined this with his professional boxing career until his retirement from the sport in 2013.
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Vitali Klitschko held the World Boxing Organization title from 1999 to 2000, the Ring magazine title from 2004 to 2005, and the World Boxing Council title twice between 2004 and 2013.
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Vitali 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.
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Vitali Klitschko formally began his political career in 2006 when he placed second in the Kyiv mayoral race.
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Vitali Klitschko was elected Mayor of Kyiv on 25 May 2014.
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Vitali Klitschko headed the election list of the winner of the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, but he gave up his parliamentary seat to stay on as Mayor of Kyiv.
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Vitali 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.
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Originally, as karate and kickboxing were both banned in the Soviet Union, and amateur boxing was one of five sanctioned combat sports available to general public, Vitali 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.
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Vitali Klitschko was competing in amateur boxing, kickboxing, and sport karate simultaneously, showing considerable success in all combat sports in which he was involved.
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Vitali Klitschko was a kickboxing world champion six times.
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Vitali Klitschko 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.
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Vitali Klitschko began his professional boxing career in 1996, winning his first twenty-four fights by either early knockout or technical knockout.
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Vitali Klitschko defeated Ed Mahone by knockout in the third round and beat Obed Sullivan, who retired after the ninth round.
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Vitali Klitschko won most of the rounds and was heading towards a comprehensive points victory when he suffered a serious shoulder injury.
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At the time of the stoppage, Vitali Klitschko had won 8 of 9 rounds on one judge's scorecard, and 7 of 9 on the two others.
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Vitali Klitschko, who was later diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff, received much criticism for quitting the fight.
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Vitali 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.
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Vitali Klitschko stunned Lewis in the second round with two hard rights, leaving a cut under Lewis's left eye.
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Around this time the Vitali Klitschko brothers moved from Hamburg, Germany, to Los Angeles.
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Vitali 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.
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Vitali 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.
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Vitali Klitschko scored a technical knockout against Williams in 8 rounds on 11 December 2004, while wearing an orange cloth to show support for the Ukrainian presidential opposition movement.
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Vitali Klitschko knocked Williams down in the 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 8th rounds before the fight was stopped.
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Immediately afterward, Vitali Klitschko dedicated his victory to democracy in his native Ukraine and to the Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, whom he supported on 26 December 2004, election revote.
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On 9 November 2005, Vitali Klitschko announced his retirement from professional boxing and vacated his title.
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Vitali Klitschko had been training to fight Hasim Rahman; however, nine days before the fight, he injured his leg while sparring.
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Vitali Klitschko snapped his anterior cruciate ligament, which with surgery would take up to a year to heal and possibly prove career ending.
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Vitali Klitschko had Peter intimidated from the first round and stunned him with accurate hard punches.
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Vitali Klitschko kept the hard-punching Nigerian off with an effective left jab and took control in the center of the ring.
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Over eight rounds, Vitali Klitschko completely dismantled and outfought the younger champion.
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On 21 March 2009, Vitali Klitschko defeated Juan Carlos Gomez by TKO in the ninth round.
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Gomez tried to use his movement to thwart Vitali Klitschko, but seemed unable to cope with the power and physical strength of his opponent.
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Arreola was considered at the time one of the division's hardest punchers; however, Vitali Klitschko kept Arreola at bay with his left jab and hit him almost at will with his right.
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Vitali Klitschko therefore employed a game-plan which involved applying constant pressure to Klitschko in order to force him into a high tempo fight.
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Vitali Klitschko consistently proved himself faster, sharper and much fitter than Arreola.
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On 29 May 2010, Vitali Klitschko defeated Polish heavyweight contender Albert Sosnowski by KO at 2:30 in round 10 of 12.
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On 17 August 2010, it was announced that Vitali Klitschko would defend his WBC title against Shannon Briggs on 16 October of that year.
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Briggs struggled to land any meaningful punches, as Vitali Klitschko won every round decisively.
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Now aged 40, Vitali Klitschko retained his WBC heavyweight title against Tomasz Adamek on 10 September 2011 in Poland, winning by TKO in the 10th round, in the first ever PPV fight in Polish TV history.
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Vitali Klitschko was in negotiations for a possible bout with former WBA heavyweight title holder David Haye on 3 March 2012.
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Vitali Klitschko retained his WBC title unanimously in a dominant display in Munich.
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Vitali Klitschko won the majority of the rounds boxing a disciplined fight with changing angles and superior footwork.
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The next day Vitali Klitschko visited a hospital to check his shoulder, claiming he injured it in the fight.
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Vitali Klitschko said he "suddenly lost strength in the left hand" and was forced to only use his right.
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On 2 July 2012, it was announced that Vitali Klitschko will defend his WBC heavyweight title on 8 September at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, Russia.
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Vitali Klitschko won the fight via technical knockout when Charr had to be stopped due to a cut received from Vitali Klitschko's punches.
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Vitali Klitschko was expected to face Bermane Stiverne in a mandatory title defense, but was forced to pull out due to injury.
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Vitali Klitschko was announced champion emeritus, which means that if he wants to return to boxing, he can fight the WBC heavyweight champion without having any fights beforehand.
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But, Vitali Klitschko stated "That is something I currently cannot imagine".
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Vitali Klitschko added, "I thank the WBC and its president Jose Sulaiman for the support in our battle for democracy and freedom in Ukraine".
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In 2005, Vitali Klitschko was appointed an adviser to President Yushchenko.
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Vitali Klitschko began campaigning for Mayor of Kyiv shortly after his retirement in 2005.
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Still, Vitali Klitschko was elected as a people's deputy to the Kyiv City Council since "Civic party" PORA-ROP won 14 seats in the 2006 election.
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Vitali Klitschko's campaign hired Rudy Giuliani as a consultant for the campaign.
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Vitali Klitschko became the leader of the political party Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform in April 2010.
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In October 2011, Vitali Klitschko announced that he would run in the 2012 Kyiv mayoral election.
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Vitali Klitschko was chosen as the leader of the party's faction in Parliament.
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Vitali Klitschko announced on 24 October 2013 that he intended to take part in the next Ukrainian presidential election that was then set for 2015.
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Experts and lawyers then argued that it was unclear if Vitali Klitschko could take part in these elections as, according to media reports, he had a residence permit in Germany.
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Vitali Klitschko was one of the dominant figures of the Euromaidan protests.
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Vitali Klitschko is in favor of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.
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Vitali Klitschko believes "the issue of language is not the top priority".
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Vitali Klitschko wants less corruption and more transparency in Ukrainian politics.
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In December 2011, Vitali Klitschko described the judicial system of Ukraine as "complete degradation" and accused it of violating human rights and humiliating its prisoners.
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Vitali Klitschko wants to ensure the independence of judges by switching from a system of appointed judges to a system of elected judges.
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In July 2012, Vitali Klitschko stated that UDAR will not cooperate with the Party of Regions in the Ukrainian Parliament.
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In early April 2013 Vitali Klitschko called for early presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine.
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On 28 February 2014, Vitali Klitschko confirmed that he would take part in the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election.
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On 29 March, he announced that he had changed his mind and would run for the post of Mayor of Kyiv in the 2014 Kyiv local election set for 25 May In the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election Vitali Klitschko endorsed the candidacy of Petro Poroshenko.
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Vitali Klitschko was sworn in as mayor on 5 June 2014.
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Vitali Klitschko headed the election list of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc in the late October 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, but he vowed not to resign as Mayor of Kyiv.
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On 21 November 2014 Vitali Klitschko gave up his seat in the new parliament.
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On 26 May 2016, Vitali Klitschko resigned as Petro Poroshenko Bloc chairman, after a new law barring a head of administration to be chairman or a member of a political party took effect on 1 May.
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On 18 May 2019, Vitali Klitschko announced that UDAR would take part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election autonomously.
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However, following the 21 April 2019 election which was won by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vitali Klitschko was not dismissed.
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Vitali Klitschko was endorsed by Petro Poroshenko's party, now named European Solidarity.
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Vitali Klitschko is a member of the Washington, DC-headquartered International Republican Institute's International Advisory Council.
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Vitali Klitschko was known for being unusually dominant in his fights, having rarely lost a round in his professional career as a boxer.
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In 2011, Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko entered the Guinness World Records book as the pair of brothers with most world heavyweight title fight wins.
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Boxing fights involving one of the Vitali Klitschko brothers attracted between 10 and 20 million viewers in Ukraine; some of their fights generated even bigger viewership numbers.
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Vitali Klitschko has been named multiple times among the 100 most influential people in Ukraine by Korrespondent: he was ranked 60th in 2006,44th in 2010,41st in 2011,16th in 2012,10th in 2013,23rd in 2017 and 28th in 2019.
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At least six of Vitali Klitschko's fights generated above 10 million average viewers.
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Vitali Klitschko is one of nine boxers to defeat at least ten different fighters for the world heavyweight title.
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Vitali Klitschko is the only heavyweight boxer to have reigned as world champion in three different decades.
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In 2010, Vitali Klitschko was awarded the German Cross of the Order of Merit, the highest German honour, for his social and political engagement.
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In 2013, Vitali Klitschko was awarded the Georgian Presidential Order of Excellence.
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In 2018, Vitali Klitschko was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
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Vitali Klitschko was elected in his first year of eligibility.
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Vitali Klitschko's father, Vladimir Rodionovich Vitali Klitschko, was a Soviet Air Force major general and a Soviet military attache in East Germany.
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Part of Vitali Klitschko's family died during Holodomor, while his great-grandfather and family members on the female line of his mother died in the Holocaust.
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The Vitali Klitschko brothers lived as children in Czechoslovakia from 1980 to 1985, where their father was stationed with the Soviet occupation forces.
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The elder Vitali Klitschko was one of the commanders in charge of cleaning up the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and was afterward diagnosed with cancer.
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Vitali Klitschko worked at Kyiv Automation Plant as a toolmaker as a young man.
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Mykola Chynchyn, the chairman of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, accused Vitali Klitschko of working as a debt collector in the 1990s for mafia boss Viktor Rybalko.
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On 15 August 2022, Vitali Klitschko announced that he and Natalija were divorcing.
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In 1996, Vitali Klitschko graduated from the Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky Pedagogical Institute and was accepted into the postgraduate study program at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
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Vitali Klitschko is a friend of former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik and the two have played, with Kramnik always winning.
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In 2002, the Vitali Klitschko brothers announced that they had agreed to work for UNESCO.
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Vitali Klitschko is fluent in four languages: Ukrainian, Russian, English and German.