He returned and won

Vladimir Klitschko completed a boxing career

The Ukrainian boxer-Stylaves Vladimir Klitschko announced the departure from sports. Three months ago, he was knocked out by British Anthony Joshua, who is 14 years younger than Vladimir. Under the contract, Klitschko had the right to revenge, and last week sports sites reported that a second battle could take place in November in Las Vegas. But the Ukrainian decided that in his 41 years of professional boxing there would be enough from him. Sports journalist Andrei Melnikov, at the request of Medusa, talks about a heavyweight career for those who do not carefully monitor boxing.

Klitschko spent 69 battles in the ring and lost only five of them. The vast majority of rivals were inferior to him in skill and dimensions and had no special chances for success. 53 knockouts at 64 victories - the best evidence of this. However, it was after the lost battles that Klitschko always did what he was respected most: he returned and won. It didn’t work out only for the last time with Joshua. Klitschko lost, but gave out a battle, which was not cooler in his career.

Vladimir and his older brother Vitaliy (yes, he is now the mayor of Kyiv) was steaming with a heavy weight of about 15 years. The “steering wheel” was handed over to them by the British Lennox Lewis, who won people like Mike Tyson and Evander Holifield. In 2003, Lewis defeated Vitaly Klitschko and no longer reached the ring. Klitschko Sr. fought boldly and after six rounds led by glasses. True, he got no less than an opponent, and the dissection over his left eye was so large that the doctor stopped the battle, and Lewis was awarded the victory by technical knockout.

By 2011, Vitaliy and Vladimir gathered championship titles according to the versions of all four most significant organizations in professional boxing (WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO). The older brother spent his last battle in 2012, the youngest whistle another five years.

Most of their sports careers brothers Klitschko, who were actually very different in style boxers, were more perceived as a whole. At the same time, Vitaly often said that he considers Vladimir a much more talented boxer than himself.

"Bags" and the title

Vladimir Klitschko first entered the professional ring in 1996 - a few months after the victory at the Atlanta Olympics. Among the great professional boxers are many Olympic champions: Mohammed Ali, Ray Leonard, Oscar de la Hoya, Joe Fraser, George Forman, the same Lewis. It’s too early to call the London 2012 champion of London 2012, but no one will take away the victory over Klitschko in any case.

More than 20 years ago, the Klitschko brothers left for Germany, signing a contract with the promotional company Universum. In this country, Vladimir spent most of his battles and gained a huge number of fans and, by the way, learned German. On his battles in the closed halls were so common in his battles that Klitschko, when the season allowed, spent his top -end matches at football stadiums.

As is usually the case with boxers, whom promoters “lead” to championship titles and star status, in the early years Klitschko gained victorious experience with “bags”. This is the name of rivals who are obviously inferior to the future star in the classroom. Cases when “bags” win, are rare, but still there are. With Klitschko Jr., this happened once. In 1998, he fought for the first and last time in Ukraine and lost to the American Ross Purethty. Vladimir confidently fought, but did not calculate his strength. In the 11th round, his coach Fritz Zdunek had to stop the duel.

Despite this defeat, the champion fight for Vladimir was a matter of time. The case introduced himself in 2000. Vitaly Klitschko, who had by that time won the WBO title, lost his low, but mobile and technical and technical American Chris Berd. It was then that the Klitschko brothers and their promoters tested the “revenge for his brother”, making it the main motive for the promotion of the battle Vladimir Klitschko with Berd. The younger brother defeated the American in points and for the first time became the world champion.

Falling and getting up

Two years after the victory over Berd, Klitschko Jr. knocked out five quite worthy applicants. The South African Corri Sanders was supposed to become the sixth, who, as it seemed, stood out only as almost as high as Klitschko’s, growth (193 centimeters versus 198 centimeters), and even the fact that he was left -handed.

The word "was" in relation to Sanders, unfortunately, is used correctly. Five years ago, in South Africa, he became a victim of armed robbers in a restaurant where he had lunch with his family. Corri obscured his daughter from a bullet. Vladimir Klitschko, when he found out about Sanders's death, said that he would never become who he had become if it were not for the defeat from the South African. And he added that no one had ever beat him like Corri.

In the battle with Klitschko, Sanders really beat what needed. One with a small round was enough.

After that, Klitschko brought two “bags”. The Argentine Fabio Mol withstood only one and a half minutes after the starting gong, missing the first at least some serious blow. American Danell Nicholson lasted until the fourth round. Klitschko and his team decided that it was time to regain the WBO title. In April 2004, in Las Vegas, Vladimir went to battle with the American Lamon Bruster, and this duel became perhaps the strangest and most scandalous in his career.

In the first rounds, Klitschko owned an advantage, in the fourth he sent Bruster to a knockdown and seemed close to finishing him. But the American survived to the end of the round, and at the same time as Gong, the rivals settled in the clinch, fell. In the fifth round, it turned out that for Klitschko the fall was not accidental. He lost his strength in his eyes, missed blows and fell twice. The second time - with Gong. Vladimir got up, but was clearly out of order, and the referee rightly stopped the battle.

After the fight, Klitschko was taken to the hospital, where it turned out that his body was very dehydrated. Then they wrote a lot that in this whole story there was "something wrong." Most often it was called the version that the water that the Ukrainian drank before the battle was poisoned. However, no evidence was presented, and conversations on the result of the battle, of course, could not influence in any way.

Having rested six months, Klitschko returned to the ring, but looked slurred. In a battle with the most formidable Davarril Williamson, he was counted a knockdown, then the duel was stopped due to the dissection that Vladimir received as a result of an accidental clash with his heads. According to the rules, they began to count glasses, Klitschko won. Nigerian Samuel Peter sent Klitschko to Knockdown as much as three times. True, in addition to these episodes, Peter lost almost everyone else, and the victory on points was given to the Ukrainian. Such victories are worse than other defeats: in 2005, the opinion that Klitschko Jr. should be completed as a career so as not to ruin health was quite reasonable.

Tsar Mountain

Three years passed, and Vladimir from a boxer with very obscure prospects turned into one of the most dominant heavyweights in history. This is the great merit of the coach of Emanuel Stuard, with whom the Ukrainian began to work after defeat from Bruster. In 2012, the steward died.

By the end of 2008, it became clear that only his brother Vitaliy, who just resumed his career after a four-year break, could be a real opponent of Klitschko. Vladimir once again figured out Berd (knockout), took a revenge from Bruster, forcing him to refuse to continue the battle, easily replayed the Russian Sultan Ibragimov.

Continuing to win, Klitschko enraged the enemies that criticized him for excessive caution. Many Klitschko fights really turned out to be boring. Its tactics were built mainly on superiority in growth, power, hand length and excellent jab, which was often called the best in boxing. Jeb is a short and quick straight blow to the “front” (in the case of Klitschko - left) hand. Most boxers use this blow to keep the opponent at a distance or prepare a further attack. Jeb Klitschko himself was very effective. Holding the opponent at a distance convenient for himself, he could “shoot” him with his jates for a long time, sometimes not once for the entire round by connecting his right hand. Effectively, but not very spectacular.

Some opponents Klitschko looked so helpless that even the old saying “in heavy weight has a chance, here everything can solve one blow” in their case seemed mockery. But for many opponents of Vladimir, the fight with him has become the main earnings in life: for many years the fights of the Klitschko brothers were the most cash weight in heavyweight. By the way, in 2005, Ukrainians became promoters to organize the company K2 Promotions.

Those who were waiting for Klitschko defeated in 2011 had hope for David Hay - a technic and fast Briton, who attracted attention not only with victories, but also with the skill of Hypan to: he spun his battles better than a dozen promoters. True, he could not show anything special in the battle with Klitschko. Vladimir carefully played his trump cards and confidently won the glasses.

In Russia, for several years they hoped that Alexander Povetkin could stop Klitschko. In October 2013, Vladimir arrived in Moscow and easily defeated the Russian. Povetkin showed a rare courage, surviving one knockdown in the second round and three more in the seventh. He managed to reach the final gong, but he could not count on more.

Last Stand

When the boxer loses, for many years the former main force in his category, this is usually a surprise. So it happened with Klitschko. In November 2015, he went against the British Tyson Fury. Before the battle, it seemed that Fury had only two advantages: he was higher (206 centimeters) and he was less than years (27 versus 39 per day of the match). At the same time, since the time of Corri Sanders, Klitschko had no big troubles in the fight against high rivals. And to beat the young for him has long been familiar.

It so turned out that in a battle with Fury Klitschko did not show anything at all, in 12 rounds he never once really hit the British. Tyson, too, did not resemble that Mike Tyson, in whose honor he received his name, but at least sometimes he tried to fight. After 12 rounds, there were no questions about the winner. Klitschko lost all his titles.

In the battle with Fury, Vladimir failed his habit of being careful and avoiding risk. Feeling in front of an uncomfortable opponent, who cannot be crushed by dimensions, the Ukrainian never decided to go to the real aggravation. Surely there were other reasons: age, the absence in the corner of the coach Emanuel Stuard, possibly the lack of a second or third plan to battle.

Klitschko had the opportunity to demand a revenge and demanded. The second battle was planned first for the summer of last year, then for the fall, but did not take place. It turned out that Fury instead of training huddled cocaine and, according to him , did not see the point in life. According to Tyson and his team, now the boxer has tied with a cocaine, but he no longer went out to the ring after a fight with Klitschko.

After a pause, at a year and a half, Klitschko went to battle with an opponent much more dangerous than Fury. Anthony Joshua is not inferior to him in height, young, technical (without this, the Olympic champion cannot become) and is very fast for his dimensions.

The main thing that Klitschko did in a battle with Joshua did not retreat and took a chance. In the fifth round, Vladimir was on the floor, and in the sixth powerful right straight sent the British to a knockdown. If this blow fell slightly lower and did not get into the cheekbone, but in the chin, everything would end.

Then there were a few more dramatic rounds, when everything could decide any blow. As a result, this blow was an excellent uppercott Joshua. Klitschko fell twice, stood up twice, but when Anthony began to score him at the ropes, the referee stopped the battle. The 11th round was walking.

After the battle, Klitschko admitted that the victory went to the strongest. Vladimir became one defeat more, but, recalling his last battle, it will always be not about how he lost, but about how he fought that evening.

Andrey Melnikov