Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitchko (born July 19 1971) in the Ukraine. Originally, Klitschko was an amateur kickboxer with a record of 34-1 with 22 knockouts. As a professional boxer he is the former WBC, WBO and The Ring magazine heavyweight champion and has been conferred as Champion Emeritus by the WBC. Klitschko was the first professional boxing world champion to hold a PhD degree.

As an amateur Klitschko won the super heavyweight championship at the first World Military Games in Italy in 1995. Vitali won the silver medal at the 1995 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Berlin, Germany, where he was defeated by Russia's Alexei Lezin in the final. In his autobiography, published in Germany in 2004, the boxer revealed that he tested positive for a banned steroid in 1996. He attributed the presence ot the drug to treatment of a leg injury, but was dismissed from the Ukranian boxing team and missed the Atlanta Olympics. His brother Wladimir moved up from heavyweight to super heavyweight to take his place in the squad and won the Olympic gold medal. His amateur record was 195-15 with 80 knockouts.

Klitschko was known for his powerful punches and durable chin. With an 87.23% knockout percentage rate, he holds the second best knockout-to-fight ratio of any champion in heavyweight boxing history, after Rocky Marciano's 87.76% and is the 8th longest reigning heavyweight champion of all time. He has never been knocked down in any professional boxing bout. His two losses have come via a shoulder injury during a fight and a deep cut below his eye, which were recorded as RTD and TKO losses. In both fights, however he was leading on the scorecards. His power and his possession of a doctorate have led to his nickname, Dr. Ironfist.

Kltischko vs Hide: First Heavyweight title

Klitschko began his professional boxing career in 1996, winning his first twenty four fights by either early knockout or technical knockout (TKO). He and Wladimir signed with the German athlete promotion company Universum. With both brothers holding PhDs and being multilingual, their refined and articulate personalities made for mainstream marketability when they moved to Germany and Universum. In time they became national celebrities in their adopted home country. In his 25th pro fight on 26 June 1999, Klitschko won the WBO Heavyweight title from Herbie Hide of the United Kingdom by a second round knockout. He successfully defended the title twice. He defeated Ed Mahone by knockout in the third round and beat Obed Sullivan, who retired after the ninth round.

Klitschko vs Byrd

By April 2000 Vitali Klitschko was unbeaten and a rising star in the heavyweight division, having won all 27 of his contests by knockout. On 1 April, Klitschko had a third title defense against the American Chris Byrd, who was a late replacement. Byrd made himself a difficult target and tried to thwart Klitschko's offense by being elusive. Klitschko won most of the rounds and was heading towards a comprehensive points victory when he suffered a serious shoulder injury. After the ninth round, Klitschko notified his corner that he had a shoulder pain and threw in the towel, thus handing Klitschko his first defeat and awarding Byrd the win by RTD. At the time of the stoppage, Klitschko had won 8 of 9 rounds on one judge's scorecard, and 7 of 9 on the two others. Klitschko, who was later diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff, received much criticism for quitting the fight. Klitschko rebounded from his loss to Byrd by reeling off five victories in a row, earning himself a shot at WBC Heavyweight Champion Lennox Lewis.

Klitschko vs Lennox Lewis

The fight between Lewis and Klitschko was to take place in December 2003, and Klitschko signed for a tune up fight on June 21, 2003 as part of the undercard of Lewis' fight with Kirk Johnson for the IBO title, as the WBC would not sanction the fight for their title. Johnson, however, pulled out of the fight due to injury and Klitschko, due to his being in training for a fight on the same day as Lewis, took the fight on short notice. Immediately after he accepted, the WBC elected to sanction the fight as a title match and Lewis' The Ring title was also up for grabs in addition to his lineal title.