WLADIMIR KLITSCHKO is grappling to come to terms with his loss to Tyson Fury. The great Ukrainian is still hurting from the defeat. “For the first time in so long, I had to experience the feeling of stepping out of the ring as a loser. That was very disappointing for me; I suffered day and night after the fight and I am still suffering,” Klitschko wrote on LinkedIn.
Klitschko, the holder of WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles, had been unbeaten in over a decade, winning time again since Lamon Brewster bested him in 2004.
But the former champion is ready to implement the lessons of that prior defeat to prepare himself for a rematch with Fury. “11 years ago I turned everything that characterized me as a sportsperson upside down. My training, my diet and my team. This was the result of a thorough analysis of my defeat,” he continued. “That took a bit of time and honesty. I am going to take exactly the same approach this time as well. I am rising to the challenge – not only for the return match, but the longer path forward, which will be hard, because I scrutinize everything.”
He has looked to other fields for inspiration. “Even great personalities suffer defeat every now and then, but they manage to overcome them to emerge stronger than before. Steve Jobs did exactly that, under global scrutiny. You may not remember it, considering Apple’s success and superlatives for many years now, but Jobs was thrown out of the company in 1985. The market introduction of first Macintosh flopped, and in the subsequent discussions on further strategies, the founder fell out with his board of directors. As he lost the internal power struggle, he was shown the door. As we all know, though, Jobs did not resign himself to his fate: he founded more companies and came back to Apple in 1997 to start the tech company’s renaissance,” Wladimir explained. “It is very important to work hard with yourself, your products and your company. Just as no one is entitled to success all the time, no one suffers defeats continuously. This is something we should remember every day, even (and I can say this from my own experience) if it is difficult at times.
“A lost fight does not mean I have lost the war. ‘Failure is not an option,’ I tell myself and my team repeatedly. But if you have suffered a failure, you shouldn’t lick your wounds for too long. Keep going!”
