Wladimir Klitschko turns 50 on Wednesday. After a great career, the Ukrainian boxing icon recently fought mainly for his war-torn homeland.
Wladimir Klitschko hits his jabs as skillfully as he used to and dances light-footedly around the ring – he doesn’t look like a man of 50. The sparring video that Klitschko posted on social media at the beginning of the year once again fed rumors of a spectacular return of the boxing icon. But that’s not even a thought in these times.
“I only have a comeback in my head. Just like every Ukrainian and European: the comeback of the Russian troops back to Russia. There is no other comeback in my emotional state,” Klitschko said recently on Sandra Maischberger’s ARD program. For four years now, the Russian war of aggression in his Ukrainian homeland has dominated Klitschko’s thoughts and his life.
Klitschko’s will to win lives on: “We will not give up”
This will certainly also be the case on Wednesday, when he celebrates his 50th birthday. Klitschko has been constantly pointing out the suffering of his compatriots since the start of the invasion. On the ground in Kiev, where his brother Vitali is fighting directly against the invaders as mayor, in TV studios or at the Munich Security Conference: “We are losing an incredible amount. Nevertheless, it only makes our will stronger. It could take 100 years. We won’t give up,“ he said.
As long as Russian soldiers are in Ukraine, the images of ”Dr. Steelhammer” boxing again are probably above all testimony to the healthy lifestyle of an ex-professional athlete. “I can still do it. It’s a daily routine for me,” he said. Anyone who has ruled the heavyweight division for years probably can’t help it.
Wladimir himself fuels comeback speculation
It should be mentioned, however, that the 1996 Olympic champion himself fueled the debates about a comeback at the end of 2024 to a certain extent when he wrote on X that although he was currently only concerned with the war, he would be ready immediately if there was a fight. At the time, the entire boxing scene naturally pricked up its ears immediately.
There was soon speculation about a second duel with Tyson Fury; the British superstar had surprisingly dethroned Klitschko in 2015. “I would love to see this rematch. But I’d say there’s a 70 percent chance that Wladimir is only training for himself,“ current heavyweight king Alexander Usyk recently told the ”Ready to fight” portal.
Klitschko has already celebrated a furious end to his career
But even if a 70th professional fight never makes it onto Klitschko’s CV, his 64 victories and five defeats have made his mark on boxing in Germany. Between 2006 and 2015 in particular, he dominated the weight class, holding the WBA, WBO and IBF world titles simultaneously after winning unification fights against Sultan Ibragimov (2008) and David Haye (2011) – and attracting millions of viewers to RTL.
And Klitschko’s career had already come to a cinematic end anyway. The 2017 duel with Anthony Joshua in front of 90,000 people at London’s Wembley Stadium, in which both fighters sent each other to the floor and the Brit ultimately triumphed, is a modern classic. What else is there to come? A fight against Vitali perhaps? It’s probably a bit late for that, especially as the brothers have other issues to deal with at the moment. And anyway, they once promised their mother that they would never step into the ring as opponents.
