Ukrainian powerhouse Wladimir Klitschko was nothing short of dominant during his reign as a champion, making him a true modern great of heavyweight boxing.
Klitschko finished his career with an impressive 64-5 record, as ‘Dr. Steelhammer’ spent over 4,000 days as a heavyweight champion.
Klitschko has beaten the likes of Alexander Povetkin and Hasim Rahman, as well as scoring 53 wins by way of knockout.
His 11-year career came to an end in 2017, when Klitschko had his war with Anthony Joshua. Years before his meeting with ‘AJ’, Klitschko was on the winning side of another meeting with a British favorite.
Wladimir Klitschko had a one-sided performance over David Haye in 2011
In his second reign as a heavyweight champion, Klitschko would pick up the IBF and WBO titles against Chris Byrd and Sultan Ibragimov respectively. Aiming to add a third belt to his collection, Klitschko was paired with British heavyweight David Haye.
Scheduled to fight in Hamburg, Germany, in July 2011, Klitschko would face Haye, who was the holder of the WBA World Heavyweight title.
Haye defeated Nikolai Valuev in November 2009 to claim the title, before making two successful title defenses. A win over Klitschko would have improved his record to 26-1.
This was not the case however, as Klitschko was the fighter who got his hand raised after the final bell.
Despite the fight being relatively close in the opening stages of the bout, Klitschko began to take control. The Ukrainian was a step ahead of Haye for much of the second half of the fight, which resulted in a unanimous decision win.
It was Haye’s first professional loss since 2004, when he was stopped by Carl Thompson.
The win meant that the heavyweight division was fully unified by the Klitschko brothers, as Vitali Klitschko held the WBC title at the time.
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Wladimir Klitschko has faced three British fighters in his career
When Klitschko took on Haye, it was his first meeting with a British opponent. Despite an impressive performance, this would be the only time Klitschko could best a fighter from the United Kingdom.
In 2015, Klitschko lost his heavyweight titles in his meeting with Tyson Fury. The fight in Dusseldorf ended in a unanimous decision win for ‘The Gypsy King’.
Two years later, Klitschko returned to face Joshua. However, he would suffer back-to-back losses.
The war in Wembley ended in a TKO win for Joshua, who stopped Klitschko in round 11.