People recognize these two giants with shy smiles on the streets in many cities. One, Vitaly, has won the professional world championship in kick-boxing three times. The other, Volodymyr, won the gold in boxing in Atlanta.
But there is a paradox: despite these victories, great in and of themselves, their real fame came to them after they entered the professional ring and began to conquer the highest summits of professional sports.
The Klychko brothers always keep their dignity both in the ring and during interviews whether in Germany, the United States, or Ukraine. They stayed so during the friendly sparring with The Day reporters.
Q.: You gave your Olympic medal and champion’s belt to the Museum of the History of Kyiv. Was that an act of gratitude or did you felt some kind of pedagogical mission within yourselves concerning those who have not yet found their place in life?
Vitaly: We graduated from a pedagogical institute and we try to approach everything we do from that point of view. We understand that we are role models for the younger generation. When we were little boys we also had role models, which persuaded us to go in for boxing.
Q.: You mentioned that you had role models. Who were these people?
Vitaly: Mohammed Ali and Arnold Shwartzenegger.
Volodymyr: With me it was much simpler. My role model was and still is my older brother, Vitaly.
Q.: What do you think about “no rules” fighting?
Volodymyr: These fights are not sports, it is a show, based on animal instinct.
Vitaly: For me this is chaos, which is unpredictable as a rule and thus harmful for society. I wish people never stepped beyond the limits of morality. The history of mankind has been built upon principles, accumulated over centuries. It is anti-human and mean to neglect them.
Q.: Do you think that the attraction this cruel entertainment has for youth people is a sign of low culture and wrong ideals?
Vitaly: Yes. Unfortunately, our society does not have any system of beliefs or orientation. So it is no surprise that the number of drug-addicts grows daily. I see the way out in attracting the youth to the healthy way of life, to sports. In Germany, for example, many politicians are former athletes - champions in basketball, soccer, swimming, and boxing. They help build their country’s image.
Q.: Do you plan to open your own boxing school?
Volodymyr: This is our plan for the future, and we have taken steps in this direction. In cooperation with Ihor Bakai, chairman of the Naftohaz (Oil & Gas) of Ukraine, we have established an international fund for assisting and promoting sports. Vitaly is the president of the fund. Ihor is the founder.
Q.: You spend most of your time in Germany. How did you get there?
Volodymyr: We were looking for a good manager, who could take us to the highest summits in sports. We found him in Germany - Klaus Kohl.
Vitaly: Germany is a socially well-protected country, with a stable economy and high standard of living. It is very attractive for immigrants, but the problem is that any German is a little bit of nationalist. Germans do not support people who traded their Motherland for economic welfare. We always say that we were and are Ukrainian. That is why they respect us and support us, as Ukrainians, not as new Germans.
Q.: What drives you, ambition or the desire for self-knowledge?
Vitaly: It is very important for me to prove that I can reach the realistic goals I set myself. For example, I can face Hollyfield and beat him.
Q.: Is there any kind of system you have to follow if you want to become champion?
Vitaly: There is a system - you have to climb the ratings ladder before fighting the champion. We have 7-8 fights left, and that will take about a year.
Q.: What are you going to do when you reach all your goals?
Volodymyr: You cannot beat everybody.
Vitaly: Sports is like life - there is always someone stronger. We can lose any given fight.
Q.: Why don’t you want to stop at where you have already gotten and start your own business?
Volodymyr: Every day a man has to prove that he is worth something. If he fails to do that, he will take a few steps back.
Q.: Is there something like boxing ethics? Some fights end tragically from time to time. And recently Mike Tyson bit off Hollyfield’s ear in the world heavy weight championship fight.
Vitaly: What Tyson did was for the first time in 100 years. You cannot speak of tennis as of a lesbian sport, though female tennis players sometimes live together. We make too many generalizations. If it come to boxing, then there they bite ears off.
Volodymyr: I think Mike had a nervous breakdown, because he had not lost a single fight in 10 years.
Q.: Are you afraid of anything?
Volodymyr: I am afraid of becoming afraid.
Q.: What is your attitude toward your opponent?
Volodymyr: In sports, just like in real life there always is a winner and a loser. The winner is always on top, and people pity the loser.
Q.: We all know that the Mafia turn to professional athletes for help. Have they ever approached you?
Vitaly: No, never. Though people in the West like to think that every Russian-speaking man and especially athlete is connected to Mafia.
Q.: What do you think about former athletes joining the Mafia?
Vitaly: Nobody forces them to become criminals. But sometimes someone’s sports career is over, and he doesn’t know anything but sports because he had never attended to life. And right then the “right” people come up to him and say: “You can make some quick cash. You don’t need to learn anything. Just do what you used to do in sports but according to the different rules.”
Q.: Do you have friends in the Mafia?
Vitaly: No, I do not have friends there, but I have a lot of acquaintances. I have no right to condemn them, because there is nothing I can offer them.
Q.: Are you superstitious?
Volodymyr: Sometimes people that laugh at that are no brighter than those who believe.
Q.: You have tried many different cuisines during your numerous trips around the world. What is your favorite dish?
Vitaly: I love milk porridges, which build the sports diet.
Volodymyr: Well, diet is diet. But before coming home I call Mama and ask he to make pelmeni (the Ukrainian counterpart to raviolis).
Q.: What about the women in your life?
Vitaly: Woman is like muse; she inspires composers to make music and poets to write. A boxer always wants to win if the woman he loves is in the hall. Maybe this is the main reason for all kinds of fighting.
Q.: You are strong, tall and good-looking. Did anyone propose you to act in the movies, like Stallone, Norris or Schwartzenegger?
Vitaly: About three years ago Chuck Norris invited me to the tests in Israel, but I was too busy to come.
Volodymyr: If you start going from side to side, you will not reach anything in life. We have our goals which we continue to work toward.
Q.: But still, what if they invite you to play some kind of Ukrainian warrior in a Dovzhenko Studio film?
Vitaly: If I like the screen-play and conditions, then why not?
Photo by Oleksiy Stasenko, The Day:
And can you tell the Klychko brothers apart? A hint: Left from The Day editor-in-chief Larysa Ivshyna is Vitaly







