Day's story: How Klitschko revived his former rival.

These words were spoken by Zoran Vujcic from Montenegro in 2012 before the championship match between the Ukrainian and Polish fighter Mariusz Wach.

A Fiasco in Kyiv

In the ring, Vujcic and Klitschko faced off in February 1999 in Stuttgart, Germany. The 28-year-old Zoran had impressive dimensions – a height of 198 cm and a reach of 193 cm. He was undefeated in the professional ring, boasting 14 victories in 14 fights. Wladimir Klitschko was the second Ukrainian to fight Vujcic, as the Montenegrin had previously defeated Oleg Belykov from Chuguev.

At the time of the fight with Zoran, the 22-year-old Klitschko was going through a challenging period. In his previous match in Kyiv, Wladimir unexpectedly lost by technical knockout to the tough American journeyman Ross Purity. This was the only fight in Ukraine during the professional boxing career of our legendary champion.

Klitschko simply lacked experience at that moment. In front of his home crowd, he aimed to knock out Ross as quickly as possible. However, he miscalculated his own strength. Purity took a significant beating but managed to withstand the initial onslaught from the Olympic champion and brought the fight into the later rounds, where Wladimir lacked the physical condition (prior to this, Klitschko had never fought more than 8 rounds). Ultimately, the Ukrainian's team was forced to throw in the towel in the 11th round, marking a loss by technical knockout.

Two months and 8 days after this shocking defeat, Klitschko clearly demonstrated that the outcome of the fight in Kyiv was an unfortunate coincidence. Wladimir knocked out Zoran Vujcic in the first round, and the following year, he claimed his first WBO championship title.

Vujcic's Illness

Years later, the Ukrainian learned that his former opponent was suffering from a serious illness – multiple sclerosis. Klitschko sent financial assistance to Vujcic three times, which he used to purchase the essential medication "Betaferon." For the third time, Wladimir sent Zoran 10,000 euros.

At the same time, Klitschko did not publicize his support. It became known only after an interview with Vujcic by local media. What impressed the Montenegrin the most was the moral support from Wladimir and the invitation to Klitschko's fight against Polish fighter Mariusz Wach in Hamburg in 2012. Zoran and his son Novo were provided with airfare, hotel accommodations, and VIP tickets for the event.

One of the authors of these lines worked at the fight in Hamburg as a journalist. Moreover, my colleague Serhiy Naida and I made a small gift to Zoran at that time – we gave him a scarf featuring images of Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko. Vujcic wore this scarf throughout the entire fight (in the photo). The Montenegrin was also literally bombarded by German journalists, and he admitted that he had never received such media attention during his entire professional boxing career.

After that, Zoran continued to fight against his serious illness for almost 10 more years. Vujcic passed away in July 2022, when he turned 61 years old.

Vasyl Tankevych, Maksym Rozenko, Champion