Klitschko brothers in arms: Boxing greats Vitali, Wladimir in fight of their lives for Ukraine

Lance Pugmire | Paste BN Sports+

During the historic reigns of brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko as co-heavyweight boxing champions, there was nagging critique they were too stoic, too mechanical, too impersonal.

In other words, where was the heart? The passion? The soul?

What a foolish dismissal given how the brothers have answered the desperation of their Ukrainian homeland’s underdog fight against the bloody invasion of Russian forces directed by Vladimir Putin.

Once celebrating with arms raised in the center of the ring, the Klitschkos are now taking up arms in the center of a war zone — Vitali as mayor of Ukraine's capitol, Kyiv, and Wladimir by his side with the military's reserve forces.

“It’s truly a life-or-death situation for them," said Tom Loeffler, who runs the brothers’ K2 Promotions company. "It’s one thing to face another man in the ring. With Putin’s military and weapons, you’re facing rockets and missiles, and whatever else they’re shooting at you.

“It’s not a fair fight for the Klitschkos, or for the entire country of Ukraine.”

The situation is far removed from the brothers' decade of dominance in boxing's most glamorous division.

From 2005-2015, the Klitschkos were basically untouchable. They fought in front of sellout crowds from New York to LA and Europe. Wladimir Klitschko entered Hollywood circles as well. He has a child with American actress Hayden Panetierre — a 7-year-old daughter who is safe and not in Ukraine, according to Panetierre — and made an appearance in "Ocean's Eleven" for a memorable fight scene against Lennox Lewis, which never happened in real life (but should have).

The boxing world has monitored nearly every minute of news coverage since Russia rolled tanks across Ukraine’s border and began dropping bombs.

That includes longtime HBO boxing broadcaster Jim Lampley, who called so many of the brothers’ bouts across the globe. He remembers when he was first lured as a fight fan by broadcast partner Harold Lederman to inspect Vitali Klitschko knocking out a smaller opponent, Herbie Hide, in a 1999 World Boxing Organization title bout at the London Arena.

“I watched Vitali calculatingly size up the smaller man and knock him out in the second round,” Lampley said. “He was so big, with such crushing power, and I recall wondering, ‘Does he have the overall skills, the commitment and the emotional development to become all we want from a heavyweight champion of the world?’

“Of course he did. He has all of that.”

Lampley sat home Sunday "frightened" while considering the fate of the champion boxers as explosive images and reporting played on TV.

He's watched Wladimir elevate his familiar and powerful voice in moving pleas for military and humanitarian support during television interviews and social media campaigns.

“We are at the border of a humanitarian catastrophe,” Vitali Klitschko told the Associated Press on Sunday. “Right now, we have electricity, right now we have water and heating in our houses. But the infrastructure is destroyed to deliver the food and medication.

“That’s why the message for everyone is support Ukraine together … we are strong. Every Ukrainian is proud to be independent, proud to be Ukrainian, and we are proud to have our own country.”

Ukrainians produced a heartfelt battle in the streets over the weekend to frustrate the Russians as they converged on Kyiv, moving Putin to arrange a session of negotiations Monday that may slow the bloodshed. As mayor, Vitali Klitschko enacted a strict curfew for civilians in anticipation of Russian soldiers breaching the capital city.

The European Union announced Sunday it is sending weapons to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Putin ordered his nation’s nuclear forces to high alert.

'A bigger fight, to help my people'

Those who know Vitali Klitschko best say he was first moved by the promise of democracy while boxing in America and Germany.

Loeffler lured Vitali to the U.S. in 1999. He was attached to some licensing and marketing deals with Muhammad Ali and invited Klitschko to meet Ali following a fight in Germany.

During that visit, Klitschko expressed dissatisfaction with his promoter in Europe. The two eventually formed their own promotions company and Klitschko relocated to Los Angeles, where his three children were born to his wife, Russian model and tennis player Natalia Egorova.

The elder Klitschko was heavyweight champion from 2004-2012. Through his boxing success, he foresaw a political entry in Ukraine as a means to confront rampant corruption and to help the country emerge from the shadow of Russia’s intimidation. He eventually quit boxing and left Los Angeles to become mayor of Kyiv in 2014. He's now in his third term.

“I can recall Vitali saying before his final fight that he ‘had a bigger fight, to help my people,’” said longtime boxing journalist Dan Rafael, who chronicled the Klitschkos’ careers. “You know Zelenskyy is on the front line of the Vladimir Putin hit list, but I think Vitali Klitschko is high on that list, too, being the mayor of the capital and a high-ranking, high-profile politician who’s very famous because of his athletic career.

“You’re seeing that now."

Rafael documented all the purses the Klitschkos collected during their title fights, estimating it reached hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Look, you have two guys who are super-wealthy from their boxing careers — with their children, their families, their mother to care for," Rafael said. "At any moment, if they wanted, they could be on a beach, sipping margaritas. They don’t need to be in the middle of a war. But here they are making videos in Kyiv, urging the attack to stop. These are men of substance, always have been, and I‘ve always thought it unfortunate that not a lot of people realized that just because they didn’t take the time to listen to what they had to say and to get to know them beyond watching a boxing match.

“There’s a lot more to these guys than what they did in their boxing careers.”

During Wladimir’s title reign from 2006-2015, a Russian group entered a staggering $27 million purse bid in 2013, bringing him to Moscow’s Olympic Stadium to defend his three heavyweight belts against Russia’s 2004 Olympic gold medalist Alexander Povetkin.

But this was about more than money.

“The Russians were always a threat to them, and they felt a responsibility to stand up to them — for themselves and for their people,” longtime HBO analyst Larry Merchant said. “They’ve stood up for what they believed in, taking themselves beyond just athletes who fought.”

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Relying on his signature jab aided by a staggering 81-inch reach and his imposing frame, Wladimir — nicknamed “Dr. Steelhammer” — dropped Povetkin three times and claimed a unanimous-decision victory.

“At that time, already, there was huge tension between Ukraine and Russia,” Loeffler recalled. “Just going over there was dangerous; there was a lot of security around Wladimir. He was so happy after the win. He had fought for Ukraine, and he was literally overjoyed just to get out of Moscow with his belts.”

Wladimir used to pack German soccer stadiums with seating capacity beyond 50,000, including a 2015 loss by decision to Tyson Fury that ended his decade-long run as a champion. He then closed his career in a stirring 2017 bout against then-heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua before more than 80,000 at England’s Wembley Stadium.

Vitali remained at Wladimir’s side throughout that fight week, helping scout Joshua’s public workout. Wladimir expressed appreciation for his brother and reflected on what his boxing matches meant to his people.

“Ukrainians are going through a lot of challenges — geopolitical, economical — and those challenges need good motivation,” Wladimir said at the time. "Sports, as Nelson Mandela said, has the power to change the world, change motivation, change a lot of things.

"In this crazy world — and I call it crazy because we’ve seen actions in the past, terrible events — a violent sport such as boxing shows that, through sports, you can clarify each other’s differences under the rules and then continue your life."

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No bout better revealed Wladimir’s fighting heart than that one, which was named 2017 fight of the year after both men were knocked to the canvas before rising to punish one another.

Wladimir collected beyond his guaranteed $13 million for his effort, but reminded everyone his brother was enduring something far more substantial, “something where you don’t have to think about just one opponent."

“Boxing, there are rules," Wladimir said. "Politics, there are flexible rules, and you don’t see your opponents standing in the ring. There are a lot of sharks under the water, and you don’t know what they’re doing.”

Prophetic words, indeed.

“They very well knew it would come to this, and I think we always knew this is who they would be when it did,” Lampley said. “Now, they are doing what comes naturally to them. Two truly great human beings doing what only the greatest among us do: putting their inexpressibly privileged lives on the line, as an example to the world that there are boundaries between right and wrong.

“Their level of intelligence, their embrace of a shared humanity and their bravery in the face of this threat is beyond belief, and I don’t know of any men I respect more in the world than Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko.”

'They were always men'

Because it’s an individual sport, boxing can breed less flattering behavior from its participants, often fueled by immaturity, insecurity and ego.

The Klitschkos were never that — and their systematic, often one-sided methods of pummeling opponents generated some cultural bias from Americans who viewed parallels between the Klitschkos and “Rocky IV” villain Ivan Drago.

During the peak of his career about a decade ago on a sunny afternoon in Beverly Hills, Wladimir drove himself to a pre-fight news conference and walked 10 blocks to his destination, unnoticed by sidewalk crowds.

That would never happen with predecessors Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, and not with Fury, the charismatic current champion, either.

Merchant once perfectly broached the subject of the Klitschkos’ lack of adoration from the American boxing audience as the sculpted Wladimir walked gloriously to the boxing ring one night.

“He’s so perfect; what’s wrong with him?" Merchant wondered.

Merchant reflected on that this weekend.

“He was beautiful, Wladimir. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful athlete,” Merchant said. “His brother always struck me as more serious, and I think that’s because they lived through a lot of turmoil. They were always men. They were adults. They understood their place in line. They always seemed to have strengths beyond their strengths. Look, we’ve never seen, in the history of boxing, a couple of brothers who both won heavyweight championships. That reflects a certain kind of character.

"And now, with the Ukrainians in peril, this is the truest moment of truth for them.”

For the Klitschkos to persevere, Lampley believes they’ll lean on the same impenetrable bond he witnessed in 2003, the night Vitali suffered a deep cut over his left eye on a third-round punch by Lewis, the heavyweight champion at the time.

Lampley choked up recounting the evening’s events.

Vitali fought through what the Hall of Fame broadcaster called “the most grotesque injury I’d ever seen in the ring,” blood streaming heavily from the ghastly wound.

Watching ringside, Wladimir cried uncontrollably as Vitali fought on, holding a lead on two scorecards when the ringside physician ruled the fight over and regulators awarded Lewis the controversial victory.

Backstage, Lampley sat in the dressing room as the doctor examined Vitali’s eyelid that had been shredded by a seam on Lewis’ glove.

“Watching (that) was like watching someone trying to gently pick up leaves from an early autumn pile,” Lampley said. “Wladimir had to turn away. It was dramatic.”

Now that bond renews in their deepest adversity yet, with Putin's war machine roaring their way. And the entire world is watching.

“The two of them, and their brotherhood, were formed from the finest clay humanity envisions,” Lampley said. “They were perpetually arm-in-arm — physically, spiritually, emotionally bonded.

“And we should all see them as our brothers today.”

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