Winning almost without a battle
Vitali Klitschko defends his WBC world heavyweight champion title in a bout with Solis
Fans of professional boxing eagerly awaited the bout between Vitali Klitschko and Odlanier Solis, as it was expected to be a great competitive show. The Cuban boxer, an Olympic champion and three-time champion in amateur boxing was as yet undefeated in his 17 fights. He repeatedly told the press that he very much wanted to take the title of WBC world champion from Vitali.
The Ukrainian boxer holds many titles; in the 20 years as a professional sportsman he has achieved 42 victories, with 39 fights finishing ahead of time.
On Saturday, March 19, at Cologne’s Lanxess Arena (capacity of 19,000) the bout between Klitschko and Solis ended in the first round by technical knockout. As Klitschko told the German press, he had trained this blow with his coach for a long time, though he did not expect the fight to end so quickly, in a sense before the real fighting started.
“I’m happy and upset at the same time. It’s wonderful that I have defended my title. But everyone wanted to see a real battle, as the rival was very serious, a boxer who had never before lost in professional bouts. Unfortunately, the fight lasted only one round and many people were upset. Me too, because I did not have time to show what I had trained for weeks in the training camps for,” Sport-Ekspress quoted the champion as saying.
Vitali’s brother Volodymyr, who was helping him to train in an Alpine training camp, sincerely rejoiced at his victory. Incidentally, Volodymyr, too, will have to go to the ring. In summer he will fight with David Haye (the preliminary date of the bout is July 2). If he succeeds and repeats Vitali’s success, the boxing brothers’ dream of having five champion belts between them will come true, for the first time in the history of professional boxing. They are current IBF, IBO, WBO, WBC world champions, whereas Haye owns the WBA belt.
On the eve of the bout The Day met with the coach of the Klitschko brothers Volodymyr Zolotariov. An exclusive interview with the brothers’ first coach, where he reveals how the champions were brought up, will be found in one of our upcoming issues.
