Vitalii Volodymyrovych Klychko (; Ukrainian: Віталій Володимирович Кличко [wiˈtɑl⁽ʲ⁾ij woloˈdɪmɪrowɪtʃ klɪtʃˈkɔ]; born 19 July 1971), known as Vitali Klitschko, is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer who has served as the mayor of Kyiv since 2014. He previously served as the head of the Kyiv City State Administration until the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
As a professional boxer, Klitschko won multiple world heavyweight championships. He held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title from 1999 to 2000, the Ring magazine title from 2004 to 2005, and the World Boxing Council (WBC) title twice between 2004 and 2013. Overall, he defeated 15 opponents in world heavyweight title fights, and made 12 successful title defences. In 2011, Vitali and his younger brother Wladimir Klitschko entered the Guinness World Records as brothers with most world heavyweight title fight wins (30 at the time; 40 as of 2020). From 2006 until 2015, Vitali and Wladimir (also a multiple world champion) dominated heavyweight boxing, a period widely known as the "Klitschko Era" of the division. Klitschko's last fight was in 2012, but he remained the WBC heavyweight champion at age 42 when he announced his retirement in December 2013. Though both of his losses were by stoppage—specifically by corner retirement—Klitschko is only the third heavyweight champion to have finished his boxing career without being knocked down, after Nikolai Valuev and Oliver McCall, and he is thus known for having one of the toughest chins in boxing history.
Klitschko formally began his political career in 2006 when he placed second in the Kyiv mayoral race. In 2010, he founded the party Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform (UDAR) and was elected for this party the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. He was a leading figure in the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests, and he announced his possible candidacy for the Ukrainian presidency, but later withdrew and endorsed the eventual winner Petro Poroshenko. He was elected Mayor of Kyiv on 25 May 2014. He headed the election list of the winner of the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, but gave up his parliamentary seat to stay on as mayor of Kyiv. On 28 August 2015, the UDAR party merged into Petro Poroshenko Bloc, and Klitschko became the new party leader. Klitschko was reelected as mayor on 15 November 2015. Klitschko revived UDAR, and left Petro Poroshenko Bloc with it, in May 2019 and simultaneously announced that UDAR would take part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election autonomously. UDAR failed to win any seats.
Klitschko was re-elected to a second term as mayor in the 2020 Kyiv local elections, securing 50.52% of the votes in the first round of voting and thus avoiding a run-off. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Klitschko has become an international symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
Kickboxing and amateur boxing career
Klitschko took up boxing, being trained by former Soviet boxer, 1974 World Championships bronze medalist Anatoliy Klimanov, a head boxing coach of the CSKA Kyiv Sports Club. Soviets assembled their kickboxing team, Klitschko was a member. He was competing in amateur boxing, kickboxing, and sport karate simultaneously, showing considerable success in all combat sports in which he was involved.
X Summer Spartakiad of Peoples of the USSR, boxing (+91 kg), Minsk, Belarus SSR, July 1991:
1/2: Lost to Oleg Maskaev (Uzbek SSR) RSC 2
WAKO European Kickboxing Championships, light contact division (+89 kg), Varna, Bulgaria, November 1992:
Finals: Lost to Pelé Reid (England) KO (at 2:55 by a spin kick to the jaw)
ISKA World Super Heavyweight Championships, 1994:
Finals: Defeated Richard Vince (United Kingdom) KO 2
XVI President's Boxing Cup (+91 kg) Jakarta, Indonesia, February 1994:
1/2: Lost to Christophe Mendy (France) PTS
VII Boxing World Cup (+91 kg), Bangkok, Thailand, June 1994:
1/8: Defeated Ahn Jung-hyun (South Korea) RSCH 5
1/4: Lost to Svilen Rusinov (Bulgaria) 9–10 (5 rds)
XLI World Military Boxing Championships (+91 kg), Tunis, Tunisia, 1994: