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
Vitali Klitschko vs. Odlanier Solís that he had fought some strong opponents, but never an Olympic gold medalist. (Which is false, as he faced Lennox Lewis, who is a former Olympic Gold Medalist). He also said that he expected a tough and close fight against a young and talented fighter. Solis' manager Ahmet Öner had also acucsed Vitali Klitschko for avoiding this fight for a long time. The second press conference was held on March 14 in Cologne. The press conference was quiet and there were no trash talk at the conference, although they both promised a knockout. Ticket sales for the fight started on