The family crowded around the strange can,...

The family crowded around the strange can, unsure how to open it.

They looked at it, admired it, poked at it.

Finally, they figured out how to open it and heard the hiss of escaping air.

Seventeen-year-old Vitali Klitschko, who had brought the can of Coca-Cola back from the United States to their home in Ukraine, beamed.

His brother, 12-year-old Wladimir Klitschko, held the can to his nose, inhaled and asked, “Is this what America smells like?”

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Looking at the Klitschkos today, it’s hard to be believe that, only 14 years ago, they were so innocent, so naive, so insulated from the world.

Today, they are educated and worldly, each holding a PhD and fluent in four languages, goodwill ambassadors for UNESCO and residents of Los Angeles.

The sights, sounds and smells of America now are second nature to them.

So are the sights, sounds and smells of a boxing gym. They are heavyweights with a common dream of winning a major championship and a common vow never to defend those titles against each other.

Wladimir, 27, was thought to be the more likely of the two to realize the dream. It was he who was matched against heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis for a scene in the movie “Ocean’s Eleven,” a fantasy fight for the screen that was considered a sure preview of real life.

Earlier this year, Wladimir seemed right on course for a title shot after signing a nine-fight deal with HBO. In March, he entered a ring in Hanover, Germany, to fight journeyman Corrie Sanders.

Not even two rounds later, Wladimir was on the canvas, his championship dream having turned as hazy as his vision. Sanders, a southpaw, confused, frustrated and ultimately demolished Wladimir, knocking him down four times before the bout ended only 27 seconds into the second round.

So for now, the family’s championship hopes have passed to Vitali, considered a tougher but less skilled fighter. He got his chance at a title fight quickly and unexpectedly. After Mike Tyson refused to honor a commitment for a rematch with Lewis, the champion agreed to fight Vitali. But when negotiations collapsed, Lewis turned to Kirk Johnson.

A partially torn chest muscle, suffered by Johnson in training camp, again opened the door to Vitali as swiftly as it had slammed shut.

And this time, it took only 24 hours to get Vitali’s name on a contract.

Lewis-Klitschko, though not the Klitschko originally envisioned, will happen Saturday at Staples Center.

Right in the heart of the evil empire.

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The Klitschkos were military brats, Soviet military brats. Vitali was born in Belovodsk, Kirghizia; Wladimir in Solechny, Kazakhstan.

But unlike today, when these countries proudly boast of their own national identities, the Klitschkos grew up in the Soviet Union. Their father, Wladimir Rodionovich, was an Air Force colonel; their mother, Nadezhda Ulyanovna, a schoolteacher.

Military orders kept the Klitschko family on the move, the brothers attending 10 schools.

And learning some harsh lessons of war as well.

“We played around the military bases, which could be dangerous places,” Vitali said. “I remember one time, we brought home land mines.”

Their parents were happy to see the boys get involved in sports. Vitali, who is 6 feet 7, said he had a remarkable growth spurt in his mid-teens, going from 5-9 to 6-5 in three months.

“A trainer came to our school and asked who would like to box,” Vitali said. “Everybody wanted to and everybody went to train. A month later, a few were left and, a year later, only a couple of people were left. At that point, I had a feeling I could make something of myself as a boxer.”

Vitali started boxing at 13, initially in kickboxing, at which he won six championships.

Success continued when he turned to more conventional boxing. Vitali posted a 195-15 record as an amateur with 80 knockouts.

A trip to West Palm Beach, Fla., changed his life. He went there at 17 to compete in a tournament.

“I thought this was a bad country,” said Vitali, believing what he had learned in his homeland. “Bad people, crazy people, very aggressive people.”

Instead, he discovered Disney World and the virtues of capitalism.

“Where am I?” Vitali asked himself in amazement.

When he came home with that Coke can, four pounds of bubble gum and stories of a land of plenty, Wladimir soaked it all up.

But the head of the household was not so charmed.

“My father didn’t believe me at first,” Vitali, 31, said. “Remember, he got his information about this country from his bosses.”

Wladimir, who started boxing at 14, soon found out about America himself. A brilliant amateur as well, he went on to win Olympic gold as a super-heavyweight at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Vitali’s chance for Olympic glory had ended before he ever got to the Games because of a leg injury.

“I went into the depression of my life,” he said.

But not for long. Vitali soon decided to pursue his quest for ring glory as a professional. There was one big problem, though: no structure for professional boxing in his native land.

“No good competition, no good trainers, no promoters,” he said.

The Klitschko brothers searched the world, even considering Don King as a promoter, before eventually settling on two Germans, promoter Klaus-Peter Kohl and trainer Fritz Sdunek. The brothers moved to Germany in 1996.

“When we took them on, they fought in the Russian style,” Sdunek said. “We needed to work on them so that they could fight more professionally. That was the most difficult thing for me at first.”

The Klitschkos were quick learners. Between them, they are 72-3 as pros with 68 knockouts. Vitali will enter the ring Saturday night with a 32-1 record and 31 KOs.

Yet the one loss overshadows all the victories. Part of that is because it came against Chris Byrd, the biggest name Vitali has fought. Byrd went on to win the International Boxing Federation heavyweight championship.

But also, the loss was damaging because it left an image of Klitschko, supposedly this big, tough fighter, quitting on his stool.

In Berlin in April 2,000, Klitschko was defending his World Boxing Organization title against Byrd. And defending it well.

With three rounds to go, Vitali was comfortably ahead on all three scorecards. But he was also in pain, having torn the rotator cuff in his left shoulder earlier in the bout.

With a doctorate in sports science and philosophy from the University of Kiev, Klitschko didn’t need a ringside physician to tell him the injury was serious.

“The pain was so great, I could see white flashes,” he said. “I did not want to stop. I had to. If I had continued, my shoulder could have been irreparably damaged.”

Thanks to surgery, his shoulder has healed. Saturday, he’ll work on his reputation.

But win or lose Saturday, life is good for Vitali. He and his wife Natalie have two children, Egor-Daniel, 2 1/2, and Elizabeth, less than a year old, both born in America. Vitali is a spokesman for the German Commission for UNESCO, speaks Ukrainian, Russian and German, as well as English, and he and his brother have written a book on fitness that has sold more than half a million copies in Germany.

And Vitali loves L.A.

“The people here are always in a good mood,” he said. “They are happy. Maybe it’s the sunshine that makes them happy. In other places, people look at foreigners and say, ‘What are you doing in my country?’

“In the U.S., you never hear that. Everybody comes from another country.”

Vitali and his wife are happy to see their kids grow up in America, but they want their children to know their ethnic roots as well.

“Without history,” Vitali said, “you have no future.”

One thing he need not be concerned about: His kids know how to open a can of Coke.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Tale of the Tape

*--* Measurements for Lennox Lewis and Vitali Klitschko, who fight Saturday at Staples Center for the WBC and IBO heavyweight championships: Lewis Klitschko Record 40-2-1 32-1 Knockouts 31 31 Age 37 31 Weight 249 1/4 245 Height 6-5 6-8 1/4 Reach 84 78 Chest (normal) 44 46 1/2 Chest (expanded) 46 48 Biceps 17 17 1/2 Forearm 15 17 Waist 34 35 1/2 Thigh 26 23 1/4 Calf 18 17 Neck 18 1/2 18 1/4 Wrist 8 7 1/2 Fist 12 11 Note: Measurements could change after official weigh-in

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