Klitschko Page #9

and a missile will come out.

COMMENTATOR:

There's another knockdown for Byrd

as Klitschko is

completely dominating.

And that's the end of the

fight, as wayne Kelly's seen enough,

as Byrd's face

is a bloody mask.

And tonight,

he destroyed Chris Byrd

to earn

a heavyweight title belt.

And so there were questions

about him at that time.

Did he have the inner

strength to deal with adversity in the ring?

And it took some time

before he showed that

he wanted it badly

enough to come back.

It also took

some soul searching.

(CROWD CHEERING LOUDLY)

CHRIS:

And he congratulated him, you know, crying,

congratulated him and said,

"Keep the belt!"

I think he was surprised

that I actually went up to him,

because he's probably like, "I just beat his

dad up, he's probably mad at me,"

but I came up,

like, "Congrats," 'cause he deserved it.

JUSTIN BYRD:

SON OF CHRIS BYRD

Because I thought my dad was,

like, the best in the world,

so I didn't think

that anybody could really beat him

and he

proved me wrong.

CHRIS:
And, "Dad,

you lost both of your belts to wladimir."

"Yeah, but he's a great

champion. So I can't feel too ashamed."

Yes, I was sad. I mean, who really

wants to see their dad get beat up?

(BOTH CHUCKLE)

(BERND SPEAKING GERMAN)

That was

the breakthrough in the US.

Since then he

hasn't lost a fight.

He pulled himself

out of his 'swamp',

like Baron Muenchhausen,

you could say,

and rose up like

a phoenix from the ashes.

He wanted to show his brother.

From being the little brother,

always having to obey Vitali,

he became an equal partner

in the Klitschko duo.

Between Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko

there's the natural,

which will always be,

some type of a rivalry,

that's normal.

In fact, I was looking

at one of the polls

in the Boxing News,

the British magazine,

and it was having, the fans, who they

picked was the best of the Klitschkos

and I think it was,

like, 52 % for Wladimir,

so it's that close.

(SPEAKING GERMAN)

He's still a long

way off winning.

(LAUGHING)

A long way.

I always secretly hoped

that Vitali would make a comeback,

but no one expected it,

what with all

the injuries he'd had, and the operations.

He has such a strong will

and such a high pain threshold.

He came to me and said,

"Fritz, I need your help.

"Can you test me?

I want to box again."

(NATALIYA SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

The family was shocked.

Everyone tried to

talk him out of it: "What? Really? Why?"

But in retrospect

I understand why.

He had never wanted

it to end like that.

He wanted to end his

career on a high point.

(VITALI SPEAKING GERMAN)

Fritz is more

than a coach to me.

He's a close friend.

I can talk to him

about everything.

(YELLS)

Fritz knows my body

better than my wife does.

(FRITZ SPEAKING)

A lot depends on

a boxer's lifestyle, whether they get hit a lot.

And Vitali

hardly ever gets hit,

unlike other boxers,

who have to stop

because they'd

ruin their health if they carried on.

WBC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

SAMUEL PETER vs. VITALI KLITSCHKO

October 11th, 2008

COACH PETER:

What do you say?

Stop.

(LOUD CHEERING)

Whoo!

(KLAUS-PETER SPEAKING)

I wanted them to

be world champions at the same time.

Sadly, it didn't happen

in my time with them,

but I was so glad

when they did finally achieve it.

KLAUS-PETER KOHL

BOXING PROMOTER:

It was our dream

from the outset. I'm very happy it came true.

(BERND SPEAKING)

It was great.

And the celebrations!

No cigar has ever tasted

as good as that victory cigar

that we treated ourselves to.

It was just incredible.

We looked back in amazement

at how far we'd come in two years.

KIEV:

GERMAN EMBASSY, 2010

(APPLAUSE)

I'll never forget when

he rang me:
"Bernd, you'll never believe it.

"They're awarding me

the German Federal Cross of Merit."

And I said, "Brilliant!"

He said he didn't feel

he'd really earned it.

But he's involved in charities

and many other projects.

He supports

the movement for democracy,

and it's all from the heart.

(FATHER SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

I'm enormously

proud of my children.

I'd like to thank

the German President and everyone

who put Vitali forward

for the Federal Cross of Merit.

But above all

WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO, SR

APRIL 24th, 1947 - JULY, 13th, 2011

I thank the German people

for all their appreciation.

The Klitschkos as brothers and as a team

are obviously unique.

We have never seen

anything like them in heavyweight history.

It has to do with

the old Soviet system. It has to do with family.

And it had to do

with what their particular talent was.

(HARTMUT SPEAKING GERMAN)

The Klitschkos are

the most intelligent heavyweights ever.

The way they combine

strength and sensibility,

the killer instinct

and intellect.

It's very rare for boxers

to have all these qualities.

People complain all the time

that they don't have

top opponents,

but you cannot manufacture

a top opponent for them to fight.

They can't fight Muhammad Ali,

they can't fight Joe Frazier.

They can only fight

the guys in their era and they've done that.

And they have fought

everybody in their era,

and they've

beaten all of them, frankly, mostly decisively.

DAN RAFAEL:

BOXING JOURNALIS

I mean, I don't know

what else that they can do.

LENNOX:
Boxing is Iike

the king of the hill.

Numero uno.

Only one champion.

The king of the hill.

So all of a sudden now,

two boxers,

LENNOX LEWIS - FORMER

HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD

two brothers wanna become

heavyweight champions, there's four belts.

So if you split both of them,

two guys get a belt each.

Then you have two

brothers control a title,

which kind of devalues

it to a certain degree,

because everybody wants

only one champion.

So, you know, somebody said,

I think it was me,

I said the two brothers

should fight each other.

(NADESHDA SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

I said to my sons,

"The same blood

flows through your veins.

"Never do that!

Not even just for fun."

(SPEAKING GERMAN)

I'll make you an offer.

A draw?

Okay, but only

because you're my brother.

(NADESHDA SPEAKING RUSSIAN)

I wouldn't be able

to bear the boxing if I didn't have their help.

They often say,

"Mom, you are the centre

"and we are

the satellites around you.

"We're only happy

when we know that you're okay."

So I can sleep

peacefully at night and not worry about them,

they've promised me

that they will never

box against each other.

And they've kept

their promise to this day.

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