Klitschko Page #5

I couldn't.

I couldn't even reach him.

(KLAUS-PETER SPEAKING GERMAN)

I think Vitali had

a phase where he believed

that his body was saying "No."

It was his biggest handicap

and that's what happened

when he fought Chris Byrd.

In the third round

I took a punch

or I did some kind of movement

after which I had intense pain

in my shoulder.

I could only half

see my opponent.

There was a mist

in front of my eyes.

The pain was

getting worse and worse

and I could feel that

I was getting weaker.

(BELL DINGS)

Vitali was far ahead on the scorecards

late in the fight,

when it seemed suddenly

that he retired or quit

and we could

not understand it.

LARRY MERCHAN TELEVISION BOXING ANALYS

(FRITZ SDUNEK SPEAKING GERMAN)

The rims of his eyes

were black from the pain.

When I see that

one of my fighters

isn't able to defend himself

or he has no chance,

I end the fight.

FRITZ SDUNEK:

COACH OF VITALI KLITSCHKO

The boxer's pain

is my pain, too.

I know them well

enough to judge

how much longer

I can let them stay in the ring.

against a guy much, much smaller than him,

who he was winning against.

And he was ridiculed by fight

fans and, frankly, by the media.

Really not given much respect

for quitting like that,

particularly when

you don't see blood,

you don't see a guy's eye

hanging off

or a broken nose or

some serious injury.

You can't look

at a guy and say,

"Wow, he's got

a shoulder injury!"

(FRITZ SPEAKING GERMAN)

Afterwards I went

to see Vitali.

He was alone at home

with the newspapers.

They had labelled him a wimp.

He needed

psychological support.

We talked and I said,

"Vitali, we must organise

a press conference for today."

The doctors had said

that if he'd carried on

his supraspinatus tendon

would have been destroyed

and his career

would have been over.

At that point

I received a letter from Max Schmeling.

That helped me a lot,

mentally.

Max wrote,

"I've hit rock bottom

countless times in my life,

"but the important thing

is that you never stay there.

"You have to find the strength

to get up and carry on."

"THE BROTHER'S REVENGE"

WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO vs. CHRIS BYRD

October 14th, 2000

First of all:
we're not wimps!

And secondly:

I'm World Champion at the moment.

And thirdly:

I love my brother! Thank you.

(HARTMUT SPEAKING)

The title was back in the

family, this time thanks to Wladimir.

One brother always made up

for the other brother's defeats,

and put everything

to rights again within the family.

Max Schmeling was definitely

an inspiration to me,

inside the ring

and even more so outside of it.

I'm really happy

that we became friends.

Max said to us,

"Boys, if you want

to be real world champions,

"you'll have to go to the USA.

"Go and box in the USA."

LOS ANGELES:

LENNOX LEWIS vs. VITALI KLITSCHKO

June 21st, 2003

(FRITZ SPEAKING)

We were preparing

for a different kind of boxer

and we got a message,

whilst training in Los Angeles,

saying that Lennox's

opponent couldn't fight

and asking whether

we could step in.

We said that wouldn't be

a problem. The fight was three weeks away.

We found new sparring partners

and got busy preparing.

Vitali was raring to go.

From Kiev, Ukraine,

Vitali Klitschko!

EMANUEL:
You must

remember that until the Lennox Lewis fight,

Vitali Klitschko

was the one that was ridiculed by the public

and said to be

the one with no heart,

because he quit in the fight when he was

fighting Chris Byrd with a shoulder injury.

So all throughout America, everyone looked

at him as the one that was a quitter.

COMMENTATOR:
Lennox Lewis

has established himself

as the best

heavyweight of his time.

He is now on

a victory lap to his career.

UNTIL HIS RETIREMENT IN 2004,

LENNOX LEWIS WAS COACHED

BY EMANUEL STEWARD

But I do know that

this fight as an event

was upgraded from

business class to first class

when Klitschko

became a part of it.

(BELL DINGS)

Klitschko pawing

with his punches, but throwing punches,

as Lewis has not

gotten his jab going early.

EMANUEL:
Lennox was

always the taller guy.

But for the first time

he was not out of range,

Vitali was punching

from all angles

and fighting with

a very, very, very passionate determination

and I could see

after the first round that we were in trouble.

COMMENTATOR:

He's beating Lewis to the punch.

He rips in again with the right

hand. Lewis momentarily wobbles.

And now Lewis

is still wobbling as Vitali goes after him.

He landed a really

stiff straight right hand that wobbled Lewis!

(FALK SPEAKING GERMAN)

The change of mood in the hall

was just amazing.

At first they

were against Vitali.

Suddenly everyone was

screaming, "Yeah, Klitschko! Klitschko!"

(BELL DINGS)

I told Lennox, I said, "You're losing

"the heavyweight

championship of the world."

I said,

"The guy's beating you,

"so start jabbing and

pushing him real hard and be very physical.

"When you get inside,

throw uppercuts,

"left hooks,

you can't try to box him."

LARRY:
To Lewis' credit

he stood his ground.

And even though he was behind in the

fight, he started some hard exchanges

and, um,

and damaged Vitali.

COMMENTATOR:
And now Vitali

bleeding by the left eye as well.

And Vitali's cut

is over the eye.

DR PEARLMAN HICKS:

what happens is that the force of the blow

hits the area on the skull

where the eyeball sits.

DR PEARLMAN HICKS

PLASTIC SURGEON AND RINGSIDE DOCTOR

The orbit has

very sharp edges.

And these edges can

be damaged quite... They can be quite sharp.

And there can be

quite a severe damage

once the skin is

forcibly pushed against the edges.

(BELL DINGS)

There are usually

three things that are allowed

for the cutman

to have in a fight to stop the bleeding.

One is Avertin,

which is a drug

that's used to

start coagulation.

They can also use adrenaline.

Adrenaline which is epinephrine.

They put this on the wound

to stop the bleeding.

And then there's

another substance called gel foam,

which is sort of

a spongy-like material you can put on the skin

to stop

the blood from bleeding.

(FRITZ SPEAKING GERMAN)

Use your left and then dodge.

Step to the side!

at cuts in boxing like, "Okay, you get cut.

"All right,

I want a clean fight."

And some guys, I call them the

cowards, will be like, "No, I'll stop,"

and look for a way to get out.

No, if you're a fighter,

you keep fighting.

(CROWD CHEERING LOUDLY)

PEARLMAN:
One ofthe most

common things is lacing.

And what it is,

is the glove has laces on it,

and so the fighter

will throw a punch.

But he'll use the laces of the

glove, the bottom of the glove,

to rub across the wound

to make it bleed.

(BELL DINGS)

CUTMAN:
He's still

bleeding out there!

(FALK SPEAKING GERMAN)

The wound Vitali

had above his eye was so deep

that the swab was

disappearing inside it.

Just watching

the footage is painful.

(CROWD CHEERING LOUDLY)

what an uppercut by Lewis!

COMMENTATOR 2:

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