updated 4:22 p.m. ET March 15, 2006

KIEV, Ukraine - The former heavyweight champion climbed onto the back of a pickup truck as the crowd roared his name. Vitali Klitschko smiled shyly and took a deep breath. In this fight, Klitschko is the underdog — a position he’s not used to.

Klitschko is running for mayor of Kiev in a contest that is about housing and garbage collection, but is also highly personal and tied closely to the Orange Revolution, Ukraine’s 2004 leap to full democracy.

A 34-year-old millionaire, the 6-foot-8, 245-pound Klitschko cuts an Arnold Schwarzenegger-like figure on the campaign trail.

“I’m not here because I need fame or a job,” he told a couple of hundred Ukrainians — women in head scarves, autograph-hunting boys, black-clad young men — who turned out to hear him on a cold Saturday morning.

“I want to clear the road for new ideas,” he said, glancing often at notes. “I want to work for you.”

Klitschko “is one of the next generation of politicians,” said analyst Stanislav Belkovsky at a discussion of those poised to replace the Orange Revolution leaders whose appeal is already beginning to weaken in this ex-Soviet republic of 47 million.

He would be “a mayor with room for growth,” said Ivan Saliy of the Kiev-based Institute for Ukraine’s Steady Development.

Klitschko retired unexpectedly from boxing in November after hurting his knee in training and pulling out of a defense of his WBC title. That left his younger brother and fellow boxer, Wladimir, to carry the family’s sports mantle.

Vitali and Wladimir, sons of a teacher and Air Force officer, rose to fame not only by pounding their opponents, but also by smashing boxing stereotypes. Both have Ph.D’s in physical education and sport from Kiev University, and the elder Klitschko lets it be known that he plays a mean game of chess and relaxes by reading serious literature.

At the height of the Orange Revolution mass protests, Vitali Klitschko wore a small orange sash on his boxing trunks while pummeling British challenger Danny Williams in Las Vegas, then flew home to take the stage alongside President-to-be Viktor Yushchenko at the height of the revolution. Yushchenko made Klitschko an adviser.

Now he is running not only for mayor but for Parliament in national elections on March 26, the same day as the mayoral race. He heads the candidate list of a new anti-corruption, pro-Orange Revolution political bloc.

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In a field of 41 candidates, most opinion polls give the lead to 67-year-old incumbent Oleksandr Omelchenko, a decade in the job and seeking a third term. Omelchenko leads by 6 percent in most polls, though the latest reported a dead heat. Most gave a margin of error of two percentage points.

In running for mayor of the city of 4 million Klitschko is taking on his longtime friend and former boxing patron. Omelchenko had been quoted as saying the Klitschko brothers were like sons to him, while Klitschko reportedly declared he fought better when Omelchenko was at a bout.

That may explain why the race is much more sedate than predicted.

“Klitschko is young and energetic. Ukraine needs people like him,” said 60-year-old supporter Valentyna Rudenko, waving a small Klitschko campaign flag. “And he lived in America. ... He understands what that means.”

But that also works against him. At news conferences, he is often asked how he can run a city that he has spent so little time in recently, having made his principal home abroad.

His preference for speaking Russian rather than Ukrainian also upsets nationalists eager to shake a long history of Russian domination.

Klitschko says he’s learning, and now starts his speeches in Ukrainian. He also counters that with his international profile and contacts, he can promote Kiev’s image abroad and apply solutions that work in other capitals.

At his recent campaign appearance on a cold day, Klitschko drew applause from most in the crowd. For some, however, it was simply a case of star power.

“I don’t know if I’ll vote for him,” Oleh Mashmanov said. “I just wanted him to sign something for my son.”

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