Magician Klitschko Unfazed by Haye

Wladimir Klitschko wants to apologise to David Haye and Nicolay Valuev. He would not be watching their heavyweight title fight, not ringside in Nuremburg, and not even on television. “I never watch boxing on TV, let alone go to fights,” he explained. “I’m not really a fan of the sport.”

What would he be doing instead, then? The 33-year-old Kazakh-born, Ukrainian had to check his diary before answering. “Oh yes, I remember,” he responded. “I am performing magic with a friend.”

Performing magic? “Yes, in Munich at a sold-out circus. It will be televised and shown on TV in Germany, where I sometimes live, and probably elsewhere too. It’s a hobby of mine.”

At this point the man who holds two out of the “big four” world heavyweight boxing crowns, the IBF and WBO versions, proceeded to impersonate Derren Brown. With a brandishing of his hand, an extravagant wave, and a sweeping of his other wrist, he made a coin first disappear and then emerge again. He presented the returned coin with a triumphant smile and a playful shrug of his shoulders.

“I like to go kite-surfing, too,” he added, as if his illusionist’s act was not enough. “But you need a big wind to get me off the ground.”

Welcome to the world of the Klitschko’s, for there is another one, too. Elder brother Vitali is the current WBC heavyweight world champion, the man who was substantially ahead on points against Lennox Lewis before a bad cut scuppered his chances. Vitali quit boxing only to return four years’ later to become the champion and, with his brother also world champion, make boxing history. Lewis never stepped into the ring again.

Ironically it should have been Wladimir who fought Lewis, but George Clooney put a stop to this. The boxers starred in a cameo role in the movie, “Ocean’s 11,” in which Clooney and his gang (Messrs Pitt, Damon, Cheadle and co) robbed the same casino at the same time as Klitschko and Lewis were fighting. The lights went out, the bout stopped, and Clooney disappeared into the night with the money.

“Lennox and I were both world champions and the plan was to stage a unification fight that December which would be a big part of the film’s premiere,” Wladimir revealed.

“But Lennox’s attitude was all wrong. He was due to fight Hasim Rahman in Johannesburg the following week at altitude and chose to stay in Vegas until just a few days before his title defence, despite the different time and different air. Rahman beat him and my fight with Lewis never happened, let alone at the “Ocean’s 11” premiere. Still, at least I got to play some basketball with Clooney, and got to meet Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia and Julia Roberts.”��

It is only for Vitali that Wladimir makes an exception when it comes to watching boxing. “I go to all his fights and act as a corner man,” he said. “I support him and make sure he is safe.”

The pair have vowed never to fight each other. It is not only a promise they have made to their Russian mother, but also to themselves. “When we were younger I used to spar with Vitali,” he recalled. “I was 17 and he was 22. It wasn’t our choice. The coach at the sports school we both attended in Kiev always put us two together. To this day I hate him for that.

“We were both big, strong, proud men, and we ended up beating the shit out of each other. It was hard, it was bad and, most of all, it was bloody. Neither of us wanted to back down. In the end we both decided we couldn’t do it any more. I was always so very upset after we fought. That is why we will never, ever fight together.”

It did not stop Wladimir from taking us through his never-to-happen fight against his elder brother, however. “We’d start by tapping each other on the gloves and being very careful. Then someone would produce a harder punch and that is all it would take. After that it would be one hell of a fight. As the double world champion my mentality tells me that I would win the fight, of course. But, in reality, I would lose because I was brought up to respect my elders in my family. Vitali would therefore win because I respect him, I love him and I’d give up my titles to him after everything he has done for me. But the truth is we’d both be losers. There would be no winner if we faced each other in the ring.”

Klitschko, the younger, is not your communal garden heavyweight champion. Vitali has a Phd in Sports Science and may well be entering the complicated world of Ukrainian politics before too long, but he is also a destructive fighter with a high percentage of knockouts.

Wladimir, in contrast, dreamt of becoming a doctor, but a combination of his brother’s influence, and the life restrictions placed upon him by the then Soviet Union, set a new course for him that has led to him possessing world heavyweight title belts for the best part of nine years.

“I am not a fighter, not compared to my brother,” he explained. “He’s a natural. I became a boxer. I forced myself to become the person you see in the ring. Outside of the ring I am very different. Inside I have a fire a raging. When I start a training camp I switch off my mobile phone and eat, sleep and breathe boxing. That is why when I’m not training and fighting I’m not interested. That is why I cannot call myself a boxing fan. Besides, I always wanted to be a doctor.”

It seems a strange query but, in that case, what went wrong? “I was too young and was told I’d have to be a nurse for two years before I could start the process of becoming a doctor.

“That was too much for my ego. Me? A nurse? My second option was to go to sports school like my brother did. He had become the world kick boxing champion and was travelling around the world. The only travelling I could do was to read “Robinson Crusoe.” I wanted to see oceans, palm trees, black people.

“I remember once in Kiev coming across an African student. You didn’t get many Africans in the Ukraine when I was a kid in the former Soviet Union. We were so fascinated we’d touch his skin and talk about our surprise that it felt the same as ours. That’s how secluded my childhood was back then.

“Even at sports school the plan was always to do two years and then start studying to become a doctor but by the end of my time there I knew sport would offer me chances in life that no other profession could. And it is true. Through sport I have made much money, I have helped many people and causes, and I have got to meet the Dalai Lama, and Bill Clinton.”

While Wladimir talks of the Dalai Lama and his medical dreams, David Haye was completing a series of insults aimed at Valuev, having dealt out the same kind of treatment to Wladimir last summer before withdrawing 17 days prior to their scheduled world title fight. During a bad-mouthed onslaught Haye’s piece de resistance was to wear a t-shirt depicting the severed heads of both Klitschko brothers.

Not surprisingly Wladimir has little time for the British boxer who also withdrew from an earlier fight set up against Vitali. Even now that Haye is the new WBA World Heavyweight champion after beating Valuev on points last night Klitschko remains unfazed. “I cannot take him seriously,” he said. “We gave him two chances to fight us and he pulled out of both of them. With me it was postpone the fight for two weeks. Then it was four. Then it became six. They never even sent us his doctor’s reports.

“We’ve had enough of Haye, and we’ve had enough of spending our money promoting him to fight us. I’m in the driving seat and he’ll have to run around. In any case, the result from Nuremburg makes little difference to me. They can shout all they want but as IBF and WBO champion I have two mandatory defences of my titles next year and that is enough. Neither are against Haye.”

Besides, Wladimir also has the Ukrainian Presidential elections in January to immerse himself in after his role in the Orange Revolution in 2004-5 that, he proclaims, provided him with his greatest life moment.

With the people divided between the President and his challenger, today’s President Victor Yushchenko, and with the election in tatters after evident corruption, intimidation and electoral fraud, Klitschko took to the microphone and addressed 250,000 Ukrainians in Independence Square, Kiev.

He had come armed with films he had shot of western celebrities such as Sting and Franz Beckenbauer lending their support to peaceful, democratic change. ““Stay calm,” they said. “Don’t get in a fight. Be peaceful.”

“But it was very, very tense. On one side we had eastern Ukrainians. On the other we had western Ukrainians. They were all in the square together. All it needed was the President to push the button and the military would have moved in. Then the whole Orange movement would have collapsed.�

“I remember standing their in front of them all. It was freezing cold. When I finished my speech people seemed so excited that they shouted “Yes” in total unison. And, because it was so cold, steam came out of hundreds of thousands of mouths. It was the most positive cloud you will ever see in your life.”

Wladimir Klitschko smiled as he painted this picture and shook his head. “It was an amazing scene and an amazing memory that means more to me than any world title fight.”

Then again, it would. If a night of performing magic tricks is more important than watching a man who has bad-mouthed him so publicly fight for the one world title neither Klitschko brother possesses, then persuading a quarter of a million fellow countrymen to come together in peace to force democratic change is likely to remain indelibly etched in the memory banks.
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