WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko has been chosen by the legendary sports stars of the Laureus World Sports Aacdemy as the 2009 Laureus world comeback of the year. The announcement that Vitali Klitschko had won the Laureus Comeback Award was made by the Laureus World Sports Academy Chairman, Edwin Moses, and fellow Academy members Boris Becker and Katarina Witt in Dortmund, Germany on the eve of brother Wladimir Klitschko’s fight against Ruslan Chagaev. The other nominees for the Laureus World Comeback of Year Award were Australians: Anna Meares, who won an Olympic silver medal eight months after breaking her neck in a cycle crash, golfer Greg Norman, who finished third in the British Open, Germany’s Matthias Steiner, who won a weightlifting Olympic gold medal a year after his wife died in a car crash, Holland’s Maarten van der Weijden, who won an Olympic swimming gold medal after beating leukemia, and American Tiger Woods, who returned two months after a serious knee injury to win the US Open golf championship.
The official weigh-in for Wladimir Klitschko´s defense of his IBF/IBO/WBO heavyweight titles against WBA champion in recess Ruslan Chagaev took place on Friday at Karstadt Sports, the biggest dealer of sporting goods in Dortmund, and it was open to the public like the final workout on Wednesday at the Mercedes Center in Essen. Famous US ring announcer Michael Buffer called the contestants to the scale, with the approx. 2000 spectators cheering in delight. The weights were announced as follows: Chagaev´s weight was 102 Kilos (225 Pounds). Klitschko was weighing in at 109 Kilos (240 Pounds). Both fighters looked sharp and determined in front of the enthusiastic crowd.