Golovkin Poised to Become Chosen as World Boxing Leader, To Steer Sport Toward Olympic Games in LA 2028
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Gennady Golovkin is slated to be elected president of the global boxing federation and lead the sport as it heads toward the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.
The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and achieved the most world title defences in the history of the middleweight division, is the only presidential candidate approved by the sport’s independent vetting panel for Sunday’s election. Consequently, he will take charge of World Boxing, which was established as the authority for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.
This position was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a string of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his manifesto, the boxing veteran, whose first term runs until 2027, vowed to restore trust in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic lineup, beginning at the Los Angeles 2028.
“During my amateur career, I proudly won 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 stated. “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, ensuring financial transparency, developing technology to guarantee fair judging, and creating more chances for athletes of all genders in all corners of the globe.”
The IOC directly managed the boxing events at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, after last year’s Olympics were overshadowed by disputes about sex eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator by the 2028 Olympics.
In February, it officially recognized World Boxing, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For the championships, World Boxing implemented compulsory gender verification, to assess qualification of boxers of both sexes, a step which the IOC is also considering for LA 2028.
