Gennady Golovkin Set to Be Elected International Boxing Leader, To Steer Sport Towards 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Golovkin will be elected president of World Boxing and guide boxing as it heads toward the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The boxing legend, who earned a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Games and achieved the most world title defences in middleweight history, is the sole nominee for president endorsed by the sport’s independent vetting panel for Sunday’s election. As a result, he will take charge of World Boxing, which was established as the authority for Olympic-style amateur boxing this year.
This position used to be held by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a string of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his manifesto, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose first term runs until 2027, vowed to restore trust in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic lineup, beginning at the 2028 LA Olympics.
“During my amateur career, I proudly won a second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, representing not only Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, known for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.
“I am committed to improving oversight, ensuring financial transparency, advancing tech solutions to ensure impartial scoring, and expanding opportunities for men and women in every region of the world.”
The IOC directly managed the boxing events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris 2024 Games. Nonetheless, after the recent Games were overshadowed by rows over sex eligibility, it said it needed a new partner in time for the 2028 Olympics.
In the month of February, it granted recognition to the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For the championships, World Boxing introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of male and female athletes, a move that the IOC is also considering for LA 2028.
