Gennady Golovkin Poised to Become Chosen as International Boxing Leader, To Steer Boxing Towards 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Former world middleweight champion Golovkin is slated to be elected president of the global boxing federation and guide boxing as it prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.
Golovkin, who earned a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Games and went on to make the most world title defences in middleweight history, 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 became the governing body for amateur Olympic boxing this year.
That role was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the IOC in 2023 following a string of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his manifesto, the boxing veteran, whose initial term runs until 2027, promised to restore trust in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, starting with the 2028 LA Olympics.
“During my amateur career, I earned with pride a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, representing not only Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that characterize the sport,” he wrote. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, known for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.
“I am committed to strengthening governance, guaranteeing open finances, advancing tech solutions to ensure impartial scoring, and expanding opportunities for athletes of all genders in all corners of the globe.”
The International Olympic Committee organized the boxing tournaments itself at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, after last year’s Olympics were marred by rows over gender eligibility, it said it needed a new partner by the 2028 Olympics.
In the month of February, it granted recognition to the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in the city of Liverpool. For that event, the organization implemented compulsory gender verification, to assess qualification of male and female athletes, a move that the IOC is also considering for LA 2028.
