Wladimir Klitschko has announced his retirement from boxing on Thursday, ruling out a rematch with Anthony Joshua.
The 41-year-old former world heavyweight champion had been considering a lucrative rematch with Joshua but instead will bow out on April's dramatic defeat by the IBF and WBA champion.
Joshua is likely to instead fight mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev, of Bulgaria, while Klitschko ensures his legacy remains intact as one of the finest heavyweights in history.
Klitschko said: "I deliberately took a few weeks to make my decision, to make sure I had enough distance from the fight at Wembley Stadium.
"As an amateur and a professional boxer, I have achieved everything I dreamed of, and now I want to start my second career after sports."
The Ukranian was a heavyweight champion for almost 10 years from 2005, the second-longest heavyweight reign after Joe Louis, and for much of that time held three of the four world heavyweight titles, at a time when his older brother Vitali was the WBC champion.
He also worked with the late Manny Steward, then widely considered the world's finest trainer, and lost only five of 69 fights.
Wladimir lost his final two fights, conceding his IBF, WBA and WBO titles when being outpointed by Tyson Fury in 2015 before being stopped by Joshua in the 11th round at Wembley.
Even in the second of those defeats, Klitschko recovered from a fifth-round knockdown to heavily drop Joshua for the first time in his professional career.
That final fight - he has chosen not to exercise his rematch clause - was widely considered the most entertaining at heavyweight since the glamour era of the 1990s, and was also perhaps the biggest since Lennox Lewis overcame Mike Tyson in 2002.
Joshua's promoters Matchroom had the necessary logistics in place for a November 11 date at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena but, despite him impressing at Wembley, Klitschko has left "the best choice of profession" before a significant decline.
"I would have never imagined that I would have such a long and incredibly successful boxing career," he continued in his statement.
"I'm very thankful for this. Thanks to everyone who has always supported me. Especially my family, my team and my many fans.
"It was the best choice of a profession I could have made.
"At some point in our lives, we need to or just want to switch our careers and get ourselves ready for the next chapter. Now it's my turn."
