“Even my brother didn’t believe in me,” or the turning point in Wladimir Klitschko’s career

Late evening April 10, 2004. The famous Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas. In the center of the ring is a jubilant American Lamon Brewster, who has just won the World Boxing Organization champion title in a fight with Wladimir Klitschko, in which he was considered a hopeless underdog. The exhausted Ukrainian, who was on the canvas in the fifth round after tripping over the referee’s leg, was trying to leave the ring with the help of his team members and get to the locker room. He just suffered the third defeat of his professional career, and the second in a year. It was a complete fiasco…

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“The consequences of this defeat were dramatic,” Vladimir recalled this fight in his book “Challenge Management”. “For now, you need to quit boxing,” Vitaly told me. Lose twice – for him it was a sign to listen and end his career. I was dumbfounded. He wanted to just take and write me off. He spoke to me again and again, expressed his concern and advised me to stop boxing. This went on for weeks and months. He criticized me clearly and loudly in training. And he continued to do so. Once my patience ran out. We had a terrible fight. The conflict almost escalated into a fight, I kicked him out. It was a really big fight, I forbade him to come to my practice.

It was not easy for me and for Vitaly. Who would like it if a younger brother rudely put him in his place. But I didn’t have a choice. I was desperate and ready to go the thorny path.”

A quarrel with a brother is not the only consequence of defeat. Soon, the Premiere TV channel stopped cooperating with Vladimir, having decided to refuse further broadcasts of his fights. The brothers negotiated with Hollywood television companies, which offered them small roles in films. But it turned out that all the doors in the United States were closed to Klitschko Jr.

Add to this the termination of Vladimir’s cooperation with a long-term mentor – Fritz Zdunek, the termination of the contract with the promotional company Universum and, it would seem, a complete lack of prospects. Wladimir’s words before the fight with Brewster – “This fight will give an answer to the question of who I am” – seemed like a mockery, but, as it turned out, Klitschko Jr. knew what he was talking about.

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The fight with Brewster was really extremely important for Vladimir. He was just beginning to regain his lost reputation after a heavy defeat in every sense from Corry Sanders. The aged South African seemed to have destroyed the beautiful legend of the new, real “white hope” of the heavyweight division, taking away the champion title from Klitschko Jr., which he owned for a little over three years and defended five times.

It was hard to get back the reputation. Early victories over the Argentinean Fabio Moli, who was just another scalp in Vladimir’s collection, and the age-old Danell Nicholson, who, although he had an impressive track record, lost to all worthy opponents, allowed Klitschko Jr. to re-enter the championship fight. But they did not give an answer to the main questions: what is the Ukrainian capable of and is the defeat from Sanders really an accident. That’s why the fight with Brewster meant so much to the Ukrainian.

Lacking stars from the sky, Lamon looked like a great option for the Ukrainian. Despite the fact that he was three years older, at that time Brewster had one and a half times fewer fights in the professional ring than Klitschko – 31 against 44, and the loudest names on his track record were Charles Shafford, whom Klitschko won ahead of schedule , and Clifford Etienne. Both Brewster lost.

A championship title at stake, a convenient opponent, a fight in Las Vegas – it was hard to imagine a better scenario for returning to the proscenium of professional boxing. Who could have imagined that the fight and the events around it would turn into a real drama for the Ukrainian and a detective story for everyone else.

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The first wake-up call for the Ukrainian sounded the day before the fight. Quotes for the victory of the Ukrainian, which were unthinkable 11×1, fell to 7×1. In principle, it’s also pretty good, but, according to rumors, this happened due to the fact that the American promoter Don King bet a large sum on Brewster’s victory (by the way, no one confirmed this fact). Yes, and information about King appeared when events after the fight took an unexpected turn.

This time in the corner of Vladimir was the legendary Emanuel Steward, who was just starting cooperation with the Ukrainian. “Great fight,” Maney said after the first round, in which the advantage of Klitschko Jr. was beyond doubt: 33 accurate strikes against seven from the opponent, almost complete control of the fight, well-balanced jabs and clinches at the right moments.

In the second three-minute period there was also no reason for concern: Klitschko confidently interrupted Brewster (32 hits against six), accurate hits with the right. And in general, everything went well for the first 14 minutes of the fight, during which Brewster took 120 blows, hitting only about 30 times himself.

And then Klitschko suddenly began to literally lose strength before our eyes. The American felt the situation instantly: he rushed to the attack, hit it well several times and pinned Klitschko at the ropes. The referee had to intervene, counting the standing knockdown to the Ukrainian. After the resumption of the fight, Vladimir began to save himself in the clinch. He survived, but after the gong caught on the referee’s leg and fell. The judge, assessing the condition of Vladimir, decided to stop the fight. “He was unable to answer any of my questions,” the referee said. “I have never had to deal with a situation like this before.”

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Incredible events began after the battle. Vladimir’s team, concerned about his condition, decided to immediately conduct a full medical examination at the Medical Center of Southern Nevada. Serious injuries and injuries were not revealed in the Ukrainian, but one detail alerted: the level of sugar in the blood was several times higher than the norm. And Vladimir’s condition improved only the next day.

The Klitschko team initiated an independent investigation, suggesting that the Ukrainian was poisoned, since many people had access to Wladimir’s dressing room before the fight. Experts even called a series of drugs that could cause such a condition – impaired coordination, loss of strength, loss of reaction. The FBI even announced its readiness to investigate, but the case gradually died out.

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Klitschko drew conclusions from this defeat. He almost completely changed the team, including the cutman: Joe Sauza, who was also called one of the culprits of the defeat, because he rubbed too much Vaseline into the boxer’s body, disrupting heat transfer in the body, was replaced by Jacob Duran. Emanuel Steward was mentioned above. Vladimir’s team has a personal chef and a physiotherapist. The brothers also revised their attitude to the organization of preparation for battles, protection before fights, the choice of hotels, etc.

“I wanted to win the title again and prove to everyone who wrote me off what I can do. First of all, my own brother. He has always been an example to me. After that loud quarrel, to prove to him that I am a better boxer than he thinks and I am ready to achieve any goals if I have motivation, ”recalled Vladimir.

Klitschko Jr. succeeded. Yes, he did not immediately ascend to the throne of the “royal” division. Yes, several times he made his fans nervous and had inexpressive fights. But after the fight with Brewster, he went undefeated for over 11 years, becoming one of the most dominant champions in heavyweight history. And yes, he took revenge on the American by simply destroying him in the ring in July 2007.

“When I fell to the canvas with then-champion Brewster, everything changed for me. I was called “the walking dead”, “the broken man” and so on. But contrary to the words of skeptics, I kindled a flame that allowed me to become who I became, ”Wladimir Klitschko called the turning point in his life. And he is not wrong.

Bogdan Gryschuk