Gennady Golovkin Set to Be Chosen as International Boxing President, To Steer Sport Towards 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Golovkin will be elected president of World Boxing and lead the sport as it prepares for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and went on to make the most world title defences in the history of the middleweight division, is the only presidential candidate approved by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. As a result, he will assume leadership of World Boxing, which was established as the authority for amateur Olympic boxing recently.
That role was previously occupied by the former international boxing body, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a string of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his platform, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose first term runs until 2027, vowed to rebuild confidence in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic programme, beginning at the Los Angeles 2028.
“As an amateur, I earned with pride a silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, representing not only Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that characterize the sport,” he wrote. “In my pro career, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, known for my integrity, respect, and commitment to clean competition.
“I am dedicated to improving oversight, ensuring financial transparency, developing technology to guarantee fair judging, and expanding opportunities for men and women in every region of the world.”
The International Olympic Committee directly managed the boxing events at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nonetheless, after the recent Games were overshadowed by rows over gender eligibility, it declared a need for a fresh collaborator by 2028.
In the month of February, it granted recognition to World Boxing, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in Liverpool. For the championships, World Boxing implemented compulsory gender verification, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also considering for LA 2028.
