56th WBC Convention Kicks Off In Kiev

Dmitry Mossienko at the Fairmont hotel Kiev: Vladimir Klitschko, Jr brother of Kiev (Ukraine) City Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, the WBC Champion Emeritus, received a WBC belt from his brother and Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion Lennox Lewis in Kiev.

“The WBC belt was the only major one I never had because it was in hands of my brother, and according to our mother’s wish, we would never fight each other,” Vladimir Klitschko explained. The WBC President Mauricio Suleiman explained, that Vladimir received the belt for his great merits, support of the sport and generously helping injured fighters.

Vitaly Klitschko opened the Congress in his home city with some 700 delegates and members of the media arriving from 66 countries.

During one of the first sessions of Day 1 Vitaly and his nemesis Lennox Lewis discussed in great detail their June 2003 heavyweight title fight, which Lennox won via TKO, as the ringside physician had to stop the fight in order to protect Vitaly’s left eye. Inviting the doctor to the stage, Klitschko admitted: I’m glad you did it, thank you for saving my eye, I realized how bad the injury was only watching the video afterwards! 

Lennox Lewis was as usually a class act, joking about how tough Klitschko’s whiskers turned out to be, adding that any other heavyweight in the world would go down from his huge uppercuts in that fight!!

Speaking after the official opening of the Congress to the press Vitaly stated that he was very pleased to see how popular Kiev WBC Congress turned to be. He explained how good it appears to be for the economics of the city, with the number of tourists growing this year to more than 2.5mn, with the city also receiving Football Champion’s league finals this year in May.

Some interesting brief Q&As of the day

With Amir Khan

Q Usyk vs Belliew, what kind of fight is it going to be?

 AK: It’s going to be a good fight, it goes the distance

With James Ali Bashir

Q: Are you currently working with Alex Usyk?

JAB: No

Q: Who wins Usyk vs Bellew?

JAB: Usyk wins. It will be very different from Usyk vs Gassiev, yet, Usyk will handle Bellew skillfully, win UD!

With Usyk and Vasily Lomachenko manager Egis Klimas

Q: Who is currently training Alexander Usyk?

EK: Coach?

Q: Which one?

A: A good one!

With Sergio Maravilla Martinez

Q: Who won GGG vs Canelo 2?

SM: Golovkin