Klitschko's Father Passes

Today was a sad day in boxing and for the Klitschko family as Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko's father Vladimir Rodionovich Klitschko sadly passed away at age 64 from a long and unsuccessful battle with illness. Vladimir Klitschko Sr. was a Colonel in the Soviet Air Force and he was one of the people tasked with the clean-up of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in Ukraine.  In the recent movie and documentary of the Klitschko brothers, Klitschko Sr. said most of his friends who worked on the Chernobyl accident clean-up were now dead. They were sent in with no protective gear, a suicide mission, basically.  Klitschko Sr. became sick for this reason.


Klitschko Sr's upbringing and success of his sons can be summed up by what he told Vitali when he was a child.  “There is one rule. When you fight, you must fight to win.”  Vladimir Rodionovich Klitschko got to see his youngest child fight and win the last major title in the heavyweight division and his sons fulfill their dream of holding all the belts simultaneously between themselves in the heavyweight division before he passed.  And with this I'm sure he was proud of his sons.  May he rest in peace.