Gennady Golovkin Set to Be Chosen as World Boxing President, Will Guide Boxing Toward 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Golovkin will be chosen as the head of the global boxing federation and guide boxing as it heads toward the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Golovkin, who won Olympic silver in Athens in 2004 and achieved the highest number of title defenses in middleweight history, is the only presidential candidate approved by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. Consequently, he will assume leadership of World Boxing, which became the governing body for Olympic-style amateur boxing this year.
That role used to be held by the former international boxing body, but it was banished by the IOC in the year 2023 following a series of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.
In his manifesto, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose first term lasts through 2027, promised to restore trust in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic programme, starting with the 2028 LA Olympics.
“During my amateur career, I earned with pride a second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, representing not only Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that characterize the sport,” he wrote. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.
“I am committed to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, developing technology to guarantee fair judging, and creating more chances for athletes of all genders in every region of the world.”
The International Olympic Committee organized the boxing tournaments itself at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris 2024 Games. However, after last year’s Olympics were overshadowed by disputes about gender eligibility, it said it needed a new partner by 2028.
In the month of February, it officially recognized the new boxing federation, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in the city of Liverpool. For that event, the organization implemented compulsory gender verification, to assess qualification of male and female athletes, a step which the IOC is also evaluating for LA 2028.