Writes press about Volodymyr Klychko after win Lajos Eros

The Klychko brothers have managed to achieve what world light heavyweight champion Dariusz Michalczewski of Poland could only dream of for five years: the Ukrainian boxers are lionized and recognized, with ladies swooning at their feet. This is the opinion not only of sportswriters, who analyze “goals, points, and seconds,” but also of respected publications, which try to explain the phenomenon of these stars that have only recently risen on the German horizon.

What, then, is the secret of the Ukrainian athletes who, in a historically short time, have reached not only the crest of pugilistic glory thanks to their skills, but also the peak of popularity among the German public, usually so cautious with foreigners, especially those who knock out local stars?

It is an open secret that at the very beginning they were quietly derided, and their athletic qualities were compared to the technical performance of a Ukrainian car at the start of an international rally: all expected it to fail soon (if a wheel doesn’t come off, at least the roof will fly off...) and chuckled. For can those easterners be capable of anything serious?

They proved they could. It seems that is passing out talent over the world, the good Lord did not think of Berlin or New York alone.

Newspapers write about “people with a good aura.” They are equally poised in the ring, on a popular evening television show watched by millions, with the rich and famous, and remain natural in any situation. They do not look like typical boxers in the eyes of the West: their jaws do not flash a golden tooth, horrid mountains of muscles do not distort their well-trained bodies, and “They will never sport a mohawk, as does their colleague Mavrovic, at least in deference to their mother who always roots for them,” writes Welt am Sontag.

While Mike Tyson pursues his goal to “drive the bridge of his rival’s nose into his brains,” the Klychko brothers (how uncommon) show compassion for their rival lying on the ring floor. Vitaly said in an interview: “I knew there were my adversary’s father, mother, wife, and daughter in the audience. I saw their eyes, and I must say my heart was aching.” Germany has seen so many iron-fisted boxers, but there had never been kind-hearted and compassionate boxers in the ring before the Klychkos.

What has also contributed very much to Volodymyr’s popularity is his attitude toward defeated Axel Schulz who, according to Volodymyr himself, “was, is, and will be loved in Germany.” They repeatedly met then and talked for a long time. Volodymyr said Axel is a man of intellect. The Ukrainian athletes also have undeniable intellect. This is the point. So the Klychkos have brought into the cruel world of professional boxing a thing never before seen: heads as a target for ideas and analysis, rather than blows, and hearts and souls as a repository of feelings.

As to the feelings: the popular tabloid Bild, writing about their bags of fan mail, reported, among other things, that envelopes sometimes include used women’s panties as indirect evidence of female ecstasy. It is not accidental that the fair sex call the elder brother sexi-Vitaly. Thus the history of Ukraine has now entered a new stage, when not only Ukrainian women but also men are in high esteem for their beauty.

The brothers take a manly, sober attitude toward their success. “Boxing is an exercise in show business,” Volodymyr says. This is why they think it important not only to train and perform but also to work for their public relations image. This is the reason why Volodymyr conducted a demonstration training on the Volkswagen shop floor and talked with schoolchildren about street violence. Newspapers claimed it was a PR program unusual for an athlete of this rank.

And December 11 Vitaly Klychko convincingly trounced Obed Sullivan.

So far, this was the champ’s longest bout, which ended in a TKO in the tenth round. The previous 26 bouts did not last more than six rounds. Both the audience and experts even before the match gave preference to the Ukrainian boxer. His brilliant knock-out series gave every reason to believe that American Sullivan would not last twelve rounds. The only issue was when he would fall.

After the bout, there were no limits to surprises: Sullivan did not go down! The observers calculated that Vitaly hit his opponent 156 times, and everyone knows that even one blow in the super heavyweight category can be decisive. And the blows of Klychko the elder are far from tender. But the American remained standing.

It was an unequal fight. Klychko’s advantage in the ring was obvious from the first to the last minute. The commentators, flirting with the audience, reproached [Sullivan], saying that Vitaly had to chase his rival. One of them even said that Sullivan did not have enough “fighting character” and “will to win.” Such an assessment would not have been that funny, had it not been made by Axel Schulz, who on September 25 a dull bout lost to the younger Klychko, Volodymyr. The character and will was exactly that Sullivan had: perhaps it was strength and talent that he lacked.

A relatively long, ten-round duel was very important for Vitaly. Sullivan “was the right opponent in the right place,” said Volodymyr Klychko. “I have gained some important experience,” added the victor himself after the match. I have shown that I have enough spirit. I could have boxed longer and more actively.”

Klychko’s coach Fritz Zdunek shares this opinion: “Psychologically, this bout was very important. It raises Vitaly’s faith in his own strength even higher.”

Still in the ring, Vitaly phoned his mother in Kyiv to say that everything is all right. They say that mother was very agitated, asking why the fight had taken so long: it always had been over much earlier.

Leipzig