Klitschko brothers 5 months & 13 days. Vitali retained the WBC Heavyweight Championship until 15 December 2013, relinquishing his belt in pursuit of his political aspirations in his native Ukraine. The Klitschko brothers jointly run the professional boxing promotion companies ""K2 Promotions"" and ""K2 East Promotions"", as well as the ""Klitschko Brothers Fund"", a charity organization. They appear together on German TV shows and commercials, have a website shared between them, and support each other's training and fights. After Vitali's retirement, Wladimir continued to reign as champion & successfully defend all remaining title belts except for the WBC belt. He eventually lost
Vitali Klitschko and Wladimir signed with the German athlete-promotion company Universum. With both brothers holding PhDs and being multilingual, their refined and articulate personalities made for mainstream marketability when they moved to Germany and Universum. In time, they became national celebrities in their adopted home country. In his 25th pro fight on 26 June 1999, Klitschko won the WBO Heavyweight title from Herbie Hide of the United Kingdom by a second-round knockout. He successfully defended the title twice. He defeated Ed Mahone by knockout in the third round and beat Obed Sullivan, who retired after the ninth round. By April 2000 Vitali