Gennady Golovkin Set to Be Elected World Boxing Leader, Will Guide Boxing Toward Olympic Games in LA 2028
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Gennady Golovkin will be elected president of World Boxing and guide boxing 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 middleweight history, is the sole nominee for president approved by the sport’s independent vetting panel for the upcoming vote. As a result, he will take charge of the boxing governing body, which was established as the authority for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.
That role was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was banished by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a series of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.
In his manifesto, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose first term runs until 2027, vowed to rebuild confidence in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, starting with the Los Angeles 2028.
“As an amateur, I proudly won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that define Olympic boxing,” he stated. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.
“I am dedicated to strengthening governance, guaranteeing open finances, developing technology to ensure impartial scoring, and creating more chances for men and women in every region of the world.”
The IOC organized the boxing tournaments itself at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nonetheless, after last year’s Olympics were overshadowed by disputes about sex eligibility, it said it needed a new partner in time for 2028.
In February, it officially recognized the new boxing federation, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in the city of Liverpool. For the championships, World Boxing introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also evaluating for LA 2028.
