Quick Wladimir Klitschko Bio

* from the Squidoo Lens @ http://www.squidoo.com/wladimirklitschko

Wladimir Klitschko was born on March 25, 1976 in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. Wladimir Klitschko is a Ukrainian heavyweight boxer. A former WBO champion, Klitschko currently holds the IBF and IBO world heavyweight titles. His elder brother, Vitali Klitschko, is a former WBC heavyweight champion. Wladimir is immensely popular in Germany.

In the 1996 Summer Olymbics he won the Super-Heavweight Gold in Boxing over Paea Wolfgramm becoming the first white gold medalist in the highest weight class in 36 years. Klitschko concluded an outstanding amateur career with a 134-6 record. He later fought Paea Wolfgramm again as a professional in 2000 and defeated him easily with a KO in round 1.

Wladimir won his 1st 24 fights without a loss and only 1 fight going the distance. His next fight was against Ross Purity and in front of a home crown he lost his composure, used too much energy and wore himself out resulting in his 1st TKO loss. It should be noted that his brother Vitali later fought Ross Purity and defeated him.

Wladimir then went on to win the next 10 fights, including his fight against Paea Wolfgramm, when he got the opportunity to fight Chris Byrd in 2000 for the WBO Heavyweight strap. In the Chris Byrd fight he decisively outfought and won a unianimous decision over Byrd.

He then fought on against some pretty impressive names in his next few fights: Derrick Jefferson, Charles Shufford (who played the role as George Foreman in the movie "Ali"), Francois Botha, Ray Mercer, and Jameel McCline until he met a South African fighter in 2003 named Corrie Sanders.

In the Corrie Sanders fight, its been said the Wladimir didn't take him seriously, which is not a good situation to be relaxed against Corrie Sanders as he is a good quick starter with heavy quick hands and a southpaw stance. Thats exactly what happened Corrie started quick and TKO'd Wladimir in Round 2 of this fight for a shock around the boxing world. At the time Wladimir was considered the heir apparent to the heavyweight division and was in works with a fight with Lennox Lewis. This changed that of course.

After his 2nd loss he fought a couple more fights and was scheduled to face Lamon Brewster for another title shot. This was his 1st fight with his new trainer Emanuel Steward who he still has today and has improved him. In this fight due to mysterious circumstances he again tasted defeat. I say mysterious because he was winning the fight handily for the 1st few rounds when Wladimir began to show signs of physical weakness. To Lamon's credit he sensed this and came on strong, and ended up with the win. There are articles on the net that discuss the strangeness of this bout and you can do some research to find out what I mean by "odd".

Not to say any loss is an excitement but this in my opinion, if not Wladimir's as well, his most disappointing loss. The reason being that it has always been the brother's dream to each have a world title simultaneously and Vitali later that month fought for the vacant WBC strap that was relinquished when Lennox Lewis retired against his former brother's foe Corrie Sanders and won! If Wladimir would have won his fight agains Lamon Brewster a few weeks before their dream would have came true.

Not long after this loss a interviewer asked Emanuel Steward who he believed would be the next big thing in boxing(not the exact words) and he said Wladimir Klitschko. Needless to say the interviewer was surprised considering he just lost, but this shows Emanuel's belief in Wladimir and it looks like Wladimir is living up to what Emanuel said about him.

Since that loss Wladimir's improved his overall ability and hasn't lost a fight. He has had impressive wins over big names such as Eliseo Castillo, Samuel Peter, Chris Byrd(for the IBF belt Wladimir KO'd him), Calvin Brock(serious US heavyweight hopeful), and his last fight Lamon Brewster in a rematch on July 7th, 2007.

In the rematch with Lamon Brewster, Wladimir easily won every round primarily with his impressive jab until the corner through in the towel.

Wladimir's next fight is against tough WBO(the same strap Wladimir used to have) champion Sultan Ibragimov, and it should be a great fight with 2 different styles and body types in the ring. This is the 1st unification of any kind since Holyfield and Lennox Lewis fought in 1999. Good luck to Wladimir, and good luck to his brother Vitali on his comeback!