By Mark Vester

WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko is willing to step aside, and allow younger brother Wladimir, holder of the WBO/IBF/IBO titles, to face the last man standing - WBA champion Nikolai Valuev. He says new the dream of the Klitschko brothers is to hold every major title at the weight. If Wladimir is in line to fight Valuev, he won't stand in his way.

"My brother and I had a dream. We wanted to win medals. We did. We wanted to win world heavyweight titles. We did. We wanted to be champions at the same time. Now we are. But we have another dream. We want to bring all the heavyweight titles into the Klitschko family," Vitali told Sports Illustrated.

"It's difficult to say [who will fight Valuev]. To be honest, it's not a big deal for us. If Wladimir has a chance to do it, I will be happy for him. I think he is a great heavyweight, like Muhammad Ali. But if Wladimir doesn't have the opportunity, I would be happy to do it."

Vitali says that he suffered a swollen left hand from the numerous punches that hit Samuel Peter last Saturday. More than anything, he was happy to prove the critics wrong, and he appears eager to fight again.

"It's my left hand. My 'ironfist.' It's all swollen from hitting Samuel Peter in the head. I heard the experts joke that I would get hurt before the fight," Vitali said. "I heard Lennox Lewis say Peter would beat me. I heard everything. But I know my skills very well. My body is in excellent health. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I had a great six-week training camp in the Austrian mountains. I can still fight."

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