Vitali Klitschko is a Ukrainian professional boxer and the reigning WBC heavyweight champion. He is leader of the political party Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform and since December 15, 2012, a member of the Ukrainian parliament. He previously held the WBO and WBC titles. Klitschko is the first professional boxing world champion to hold a PhD degree.
Both Vitali and his brother are avid chess players. Vitali is a friend of former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik and the two have played, with Kramnik always winning. Vitali has commented that “Chess is similar to boxing. You need to develop a strategy, and you need to think two or three steps ahead about what your opponent is doing. You have to be smart. But what’s the difference between chess and boxing? In chess, nobody is an expert, but everybody plays. In boxing, everybody is an expert, but nobody fights.”
Bernard Hopkins Jr., known as The Executioner (born January 15, 1965) is an American boxer. Hopkins is most widely known for his career in the middleweight class, where he held at least a piece of the championship in that class from 1994 until 2005. Having held the International Boxing Federation’s middleweight title first, he unified the titles of all three of boxing’s major sanctioning bodies in 2001 by winning the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council titles.
In 2004 Hopkins, having added The Ring middleweight championship to his resume as well, became the first middleweight to have held all four of what are considered the major belts when he won the World Boxing Organization’s championship from Oscar De La Hoya.
Having defended a world middleweight title a record 20 times before losing the title in 2005, he is considered one of the greatest middleweight champions of all time. The Ring ranked him #3 on their list of the “10 Best Middleweight Title Holders of the Last 50 years.”
In addition to being an active boxer, Hopkins is also a minority partner with Golden Boy Promotions.
Paul “Paulie” Malignaggi is an Italian American professional boxer. He is a former IBF Light Welterweight Champion and the current WBA Welterweight Champion.
Malignaggi has done print clothing ads that have been featured in magazines such as Esquire magazine, Playboy magazine, and Frank 151 magazine. He also had a small role in the movie Undefeated featuring John Leguizamo, and had a feature documentary on his life leading into his fight with Miguel Cotto titled “Magic Man,” which later aired on Showtime.
Japanese video game company Nintendo used him as the model for their character Little Mac in the new sequel Punch-Out!! for the Wii, and also featured him in the commercials as well. Malignaggi is a featured fighter in EA Sports’ Fight Night Round 4 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Malignaggi is set to defend his WBA Welterweight title against undefeated two time world champion, former WBO Super Featherweight champion and current WBC Lightweight champion, Adrien Broner on June 22, 2013 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
