VITALI KLITSCHKO (Volume 1)
- Vitali Klitschko won multiple world heavyweight championships. He held the WBO title from 1999 to 2000, the Ring magazine title from 2004 to 2005, and the WBC title in 2004 and from 2008 to 2013.
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Klitschko excelled at kickboxing as a boy, and he put on his first pair of boxing gloves at age 13. He was scheduled to represent Ukraine in boxing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, but he tested positive for steroids and was dismissed from the team
Klitschko lost for the first time on April 1, 2000, when he suffered a torn rotator cuff during a bout with American Chris Byrd, which resulted in a technical knockout defeat. British boxer Lennox Lewis stopped him on cuts in a thrilling defense of the WBC heavyweight title on June 21, 2003.
Following Lewis’s retirement, Klitschko captured the vacant WBC championship, but a series of injuries induced him to announce his retirement on November 9, 2005, after having made only one defense. He regained the WBC belt in his return to the ring on October 11, 2008.
Klitschko vacated his WBC title and stepped away from boxing in December 2013 to dedicate his time to Ukrainian politics.
