The Letter After Klitschko's Loss

Less than a month after Wladimir Klitschko lost to Lamon Brewster, his lawyer, Judd Burstein, sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney's office in Nevada. Burstein asked for an investigation into the fight. The request moved the dispute from the ring to the handling of evidence after the result had been recorded.

The bout took place on April 10, 2004, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Klitschko was knocked down at the end of the fifth round, and referee Robert Byrd stopped the heavyweight title fight. That was the documented sequence of the defeat. The letter directed attention to what remained available for examination afterward.

The inquiry letter raised concerns about missing post-fight blood and urine samples. Klitschko later said he felt drugged after the opening round, a statement attributed to him rather than an established medical conclusion. Emmanuel Steward also wrote that something else was causing Klitschko's problems. Neither account identified a proven substance or established that the specimens had been altered.

Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, gave a different account of the post-fight handling. Ratner said Klitschko was taken to a trauma unit rather than an emergency room and that blood and urine tests showed nothing irregular or remarkable. His statement placed routine test results alongside Klitschko's camp's concern that specimens were missing.

The documented institutional action was Burstein's request for federal scrutiny, not a finding against Brewster or a determination that Klitschko had been drugged. The fight remained a loss on the record. The post-fight evidence remained contested.