Gennady Golovkin Poised to Become Chosen as International Boxing Leader, Will Guide Sport Toward 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Former world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin is slated to be elected president of World Boxing and lead the sport as it prepares for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Golovkin, who earned a silver medal in Athens in 2004 and went on to make the most world title defences in the history of the middleweight division, is the sole nominee for president approved by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. Consequently, he will take charge 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 expelled by the International Olympic Committee in the year 2023 following a series of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his manifesto, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose first term lasts through 2027, vowed to rebuild confidence in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic lineup, beginning at the 2028 LA Olympics.
“As an amateur, I earned with pride a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “In my pro career, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.
“I am dedicated to strengthening governance, ensuring financial transparency, developing technology to guarantee fair judging, and expanding opportunities for athletes of all genders in every region of the world.”
The International Olympic Committee organized the boxing tournaments itself at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nonetheless, after the recent Games were marred by rows over gender eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator in time for the 2028 Olympics.
In February, it officially recognized World Boxing, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in the city of Liverpool. For the championships, the organization implemented compulsory gender verification, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a move that the Olympic committee is also considering for LA 2028.
