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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Standing tall: Riot police meet their match as Ukraine's heavyweight boxing Klitschko brothers join protest Back to video

Vitali Klitschko is no Muhammad Ali, it is agreed, and not just because there could only be one Muhammad Ali. Both have been heavyweight champions and both have dominated boxing, but Ali’s fights inspired poetry; he made men like Norman Mailer and George Plimpton and David Remnick write beautiful things, things that glowed. Vitali Klitschko is not a man who inspires poetry.

No, he is a flat-nosed giant with old-world power and a stone chin, and he has won fight after fight with them, nothing fancy. He is not a heavyweight champ who inspires adulation; he is bright and thoughtful, but he cannot dance. Still, like Ali, he is becoming a significant political figure, and like Ali, he is on the front lines of a genuine fight.

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KYIV — Ukrainian activists swarmed central Kyiv Wednesday, reclaiming the epicentre of anti-government protests after an overnight police raid that left dozens injured.