Vitali Klitschko for the past ten years prior to election day; and Klitschko had lived for many years in Ukraine and Germany, where, according to media reports, he has a residence permit. Opinion polls since early 2011 showed that the predicted percentage of votes that Klitschko would gain in the first round of the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election enlarged from 4.8% in December 2011 to 15.1% in February 2013, and an October 2013 Razumkov Centre poll predicted 19.3%. Klitschko was one of the dominant figures of the Euromaidan protests. During these protests, he retired from boxing. He confirmed on 28 February 2014
Wladimir Klitschko vs. Ruslan Chagaev had beaten Vitali Klitschko in June 2003. Klitschko dominated the fight, with him winning every round on one scorecard, and all but one on the other two. He knocked Chagaev down in the second round and opened a cut over his left eye in the eighth. The fight was stopped after the ninth round. Inmediatly after this bout Chagaev would lose his "Champion In recess" status and would not fight for eleven months. Klitschko would make two defences against Eddie Chambers and a rematch with former WBC champion Samuel Peter, before a unification bout with now WBA beltholder Haye in