For the First Time in History: All Major Heavyweight Boxing Belts Belong to One [Ukrainian] Family

Kyiv, July 11, 2011. The press conference dedicated to the presentation of the six major Championship belts won by the Klitschko brothers was held in Kyiv on July 7. Two brothers currently hold all heavyweight championship titles with Volodymyr Klitschko being the WBA, IBF, IBO, WBO, and Ring Magazine Champion and his older brother Vitali Klitschko — the current WBC champion.

The press conference’s light-hearted start was kicked off by the newly inaugurated WBA Champion, 35 year old Volodymyr Klitschko: “From now on the fans won’t have a hard time remembering the names of the world heavyweight champions.” His older brother Vitali, who turns 40 in less than a fortnight, added: “Each of these belts was earned by hard work.”

Over 120 international and local journalists gathered for the historical presentation of the belts that the Klitschko brothers brought to Ukraine and to celebrate the fact that all the major heavyweight boxing titles are currently held by one family — for the first time ever.

One of the hottest topics of the press conference was the most recent victory of Volodymyr Klitschko over the British David Haye bringing the last belt (WBA) to the family. Volodymyr fought Haye in a heavyweight unification fight for the WBA, WBO, IBF, IBO, and The Ring heavyweight titles in Hamburg, Germany, on July 2, 2011 and won by points by the unanimous vote of the judges. The match drew a lot of international attention with around 500 mln viewers from 150 countries around the world watching the live telecast.

After the match, the younger Klitschko was criticized for being a boring boxer. He addressed this issue at the press conference: “Boxing is not a street fight, it’s a classical sport. Sometimes matches can feel boring. But I think my brother and I have enough knockout victories under our belts.” Talking about his match with David Haye, Volodymyr compared boxing to chess, describing the July 2 fight as one based solely on strategy.

Volodymyr Klitschko is the longest reigning Heavyweight Champion in the history for the IBF, WBO & IBO heavyweight titles, both in terms of duration as well as the number of defenses.

During the press conference Vitali Klitschko shared his plans for the future: a contract for the match with Tomasz Adamek on September 10, 2011 has been signed, he said. The Polish boxer is an official contender for the WBC title. “I am flattered that the stadium is not yet finished but 30 thousand tickets have been already sold,” said Vitali.

The Klitschko brothers keep making boxing history with the continuously growing audience numbers (The Klitschko-Haye German broadcast rating has set a new record and broke the previous one — set by Vitali Klitschko’s fight with Shannon Briggs by 2 mln viewers).