Vitali and Vladimir Klitschko grew up in a military family behind the Iron Curtain. The world changed when Big Brother went to the kickboxing race in the United States and brought his little brother Coca-Cola.
Ukraine the mayor of the capital Kiev Vitali Klitschko and his brother Vladimir Klitschko are currently fighting for their country.
They have been known in the boxing world as Klitschko’s brothers. Together, they dominated the heavy series of professional boxing for a long time. The brothers have now taken up arms, although there would certainly be an easier way for wealthy ex-boxers.
On Saturday, both of them shared a Twitter video on Vladimir Klitschko on social media saying Russia had targeted missile strikes on civilians and asked for help before it was too late.
Russia attacked Ukraine last Thursday. On the same day, Vladimir Klitschko published a text on LinkedIn No democracy without Democrats.
The text assures that a people longing for sovereignty and peace will remain strong, but states that democracy cannot defend itself and needs actors committed to it.
On Friday, Vitali Klitschko said he was ready to fight as Russian troops marched on Kiev.
“I have no choice, I have to do it, I’m going to fight,” the 50-year-old mayor told a British television channel, ITV, in a morning broadcast The Guardian by.
The mayor of Kiev urges in a neon sign to defend Kiev together. Photo of the center of Kiev on February 3.
To war these brethren have prepared from an early age. Admittedly, the enemy is not the one they practiced as a child.
Grantland site in an interview in 2011, the brothers talked about their childhood during the Cold War in the Soviet Union. Then the enemy was the United States.
It was talked about as a horrible place where aggressive criminals live and people shoot each other on the streets.
“I was told they wanted to attack us and make us slaves. At one point, I thought I had to defend my country against crazy Americans who want to control the whole world, ”Vitali said in the article.
Vladimir, for his part, recalled telling a local coach about his childhood at a U.S. training camp.
“When I was 12, I shot an AK-47, hand-grabbed, ran through underground tunnels, and learned how to act when tanks attacked. The coach was amazed and said that when he was 12, he went to Disneyland to see Mickey Mouse. ”
Vitali Klitško (left) prepares for a match, Vladimir is a training buddy. Press training in September 2004 in Los Angeles.
Revolutionary the moment was when Vitali Klitschko traveled to the United States at the age of 17 with the kickboxing national team. The young fighter was downright shocked at how much the country differed from his imagination – and his homeland.
“I had always thought there was only one type of cheese called cheese. Then there were hundreds of different cheeses in the grocery store! ”
When Vitali Klitschko returned home, everyone wanted to hear what the country had been like, because “at that time it was easier to travel to the moon than to the United States”. He brought a bottle of Coca-Cola to his little brother.
“Everyone in the Soviet Union had heard of it, but no one had ever tasted it. I was so happy! ” Vladimir Klitschko told Grantland.
Brothers father Vladimir Rodionovich Klitschko was a Soviet officer. Vice-magazine according to him, he joined the Soviet Air Force as a young man and pursued a meritorious military career.
He married a teacher Nadezhda Ulyanovnan with. The family traveled with military assignments over a large area of the Soviet Union. Vitali was born in Belovodskoye, present-day Kyrgyzstan, while Vladimir was born in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. The father also served in East Germany.
As children of a high-ranking military officer, the brothers had as good a starting point as was possible in the Soviet Union. Military bases were able to practice boxing skills, in addition, the brothers are fluent in several languages and have been encouraged to study. Both have doctorates in sports science from Kiev University.
Vladimir Klitschko (right) and his mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, spoke to reporters at the opening of the Ukrainian Regional Defense Recruitment Center in central Kiev in early February.
Vladimir Rodionovich Klitschko also served his country in 1986, when the devastating nuclear accident at Chernobyl occurred.
At the time of the event Klitschko’s family lived at a military base about a hundred miles from the nuclear power plant. The boys were 10 and 14 years old at the time.
“Our father was one of the first at the scene. He spent months working there to isolate the radiation and clean up the area, ”Vitali Klitschko recalls in an interview with Grantland.
When cars and helicopters returned from Chernobyl to the base, they were washed there. Large puddles formed in the area, which fascinated the children of the military base.
“I, my brother and our friends are playing in the puddles with small paper boats. At the time, no one knew how serious the radiation problems were, ”Vladimir Klitschko said.
At first, the accident was belittled by the state, and many who worked on it died. The effects were long-lasting. Vladimir Rodionovich Klitschko died of cancer at the age of 64 in 2011.
“Doctors said it was due to his contact with the nuclear fallout. I have never cried so much, ”Vitali said in an interview with Grantland in 2011.
In the year 2011 completed Sebastian Dehnhardtin a documentary directed by Klitschko tells us that the brothers were already very interested in martial arts at a young age, especially karate and kickboxing.
Western action movie stars such as Arnold Schwarzeneggerin and Chuck Norrisinposters.
According to the documentary, Western martial arts such as kickboxing were banned in the Soviet Union, but the ban was lifted in 1989. Before that, Vitali Klitschko was a kickboxing coach. Andrei Schistowin in prohibited training.
The young wrestler quickly remembered the coach.
“If he was told to go left, he went right. He always did the opposite, ”Schistow recalls in the documentary.
Western action stars were also faned behind the Iron Curtain. Later, the brothers have become acquainted with them. Pictured are Vladimir Klitschko (right) and Arnold Schwarzenegger at a party in Tyrol, Austria in 2018.
Vitali Klitško was successful in kickboxing, but he was also interested in boxing. The little brother followed with him to box. Army Boxing Club Coach Vladimir Zolotarev described the brothers in a documentary:
“Vitali is made of stone, Vladimir clay. When I taught Vital something new, it took time to learn. It was easier to edit Vladimir, but he also got tired faster. ”
Properly the well-behaved two-meter brothers dominated the heavy series of boxing for a long time. They have simultaneously held all five prestigious heavyweight World Cup belts (WBA, IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring).
They never pretended against each other, they had promised it to their mother early on.
The era of the Klitschko brothers has even been blamed for being boring, as they did not engage in tossing water bottles at weighing ceremonies or other punching. The same thoughtful line was also visible in the ring.
World champion Vladimir Klitschko (left) and his challenger Tyson Fury in November 2015 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The younger of the brothers has been more and longer on display as a boxer. Vladimir Klitschko first won the super heavyweight gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Initially, Vitali Klitschko was supposed to travel to Atlanta, but his little brother had to take a time off when his big brother was on steroids, according to a non-fiction book. Britannica.
Of the Olympics after that the professional world became interested in the brothers. They began their professional careers under German promotion on the same boxing night in November 1996. Boxing website Boxrec says that Vitali Klitschko survived his match in the second and Vladimir Klitschko in the first. Since then, the resistance has hardened.
The brothers have always held each other’s sides. Vitali Klitschko suffered a defeat as WBO champion Chris Byrdille in 2000. He surrendered the match at the end due to a shoulder injury, and the decision was heavily criticized.
The little brother immediately beat Byrd in his next match six months later.
The documentary about the brothers shows when Vladimir Klitschko speaks to the audience after the match:
“First: we are not donors; second: I am now a world champion; and third: I love my brother.”
When Vladimir Klitschko lost Corrie Sandersille in 2003, took a big brother revenge and beat Sanders in the eighth installment.
Once previously defunct Vitali Klitschko hung his gloves on the pound permanently in 2012 and decided to focus on politics. The balance of the professional career was 47 matches, of which two losses. He has served as mayor of Kiev since 2014.
In an interview at Grantland in 2011, Vitali Klitschko compared boxing and politics.
“Politics is dirty. We have rules in boxing, but we don’t have them in politics. Especially in a young democracy like Ukraine. ”
Vladimir Klitschko ended his career in August 2017. He won 64 of the 69 matches. In the last match in 2017, he lost Anthony Joshua. Before that, he fought in 2015, losing Tyson Fury.
The bond between the brothers is extremely strong. Vitali Klitschko had to take care of his little brother early on when his parents went to work.
In boxing, and especially as the career progressed, both had their own coaches and views on training, but whenever one played, the other was on the corner.
In the documentary, Vitali Klitschko states that the opponent always matches the two of them.
Vladimir Klitschko’s eye corner will be patched during the championship match break in April 2017. Vitali Klitschko will follow with a look of concern.
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