Wladimir Klitschko turned down $100M to fight brother

Wladimir Klitschko has held at least two world heavyweight titles since 2006, but he turned down a huge payday from Don King to fight his older brother, Vitali.

When Wladimir Klitschko defends his WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO and The Ring heavyweight titles on April 25 at Madison Square Garden against Bryant Jennings, he will have held at least two of the world heavyweight titles for more than nine years.

He grabbed the IBF and IBO titles with a seventh-round TKO of Chris Byrd in Mannheim, Germany, on April 22, 2006, and has held those titles through 17 defenses.

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Now 38 years old and 63-3 in his career, Klitschko added the WBO belt with his unanimous decision over Sultan Ibragimov at the Garden in February 2008. He claimed The Ring title by referee technical decision in nine rounds over Ruslan Chagaev at Gelsenkirchen, Germany, in June 2009 and finally took the WBA super-heavyweight crown in July 2011 with a unanimous decision over David Haye in Hamburg, Germany.

The fiancé of actress Hayden Panettierre (Heroes, Nashville) even had a chance to split a $100 million payday from promoter Don King.

All he had to do is fight older brother Vitali Klitschko, who was a heavyweight champion himself from 2004-12, holding the WBC belt—which currently belongs to Deontay Wilder—until his retirement.

On the Dan Patrick Show last week, Wladimir talked about the offer.

“You guys sign with me, I’m going to make this fight,” Klitchscko recalled King telling him. “I’m going to make you rich.”

But it was a fight that was never going to happen.

“We were asked many times if we are going to fight each other or not, but we made a promise to our mother that we will never fight each other,” he said. “She asked us—you can box, you can both be involved in boxing—which I don’t like, but you have to promise me one thing: no matter what you won’t fight each other.

“A billion wouldn’t help. Money is not everything in life. I understand that people are excited and driven by money, but no. Between two brothers … I love my brother too much.”

Vitali, 43, is now the mayor of Kiev, Ukraine. In 2013, Wladimir and Panettierre visited protests in Kiev, addressing the crowds who assembled, demanding closer European integration.

Klitschko has the second-longest reign in heavyweight history, behind only the 11 years, eight months and eight days Joe Louis held the title from 1937-49, giving it up when he briefly retired.

With 17 consecutive title defenses, Klitschko is third all-time among heavyweights, trailing only Louis (25) and Larry Holmes, who defended his crown 20 times from 1978-85 before he lost a unanimous decision to Michael Spinks in September 1985.

H/T Black Sports Online

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