Gennady Golovkin Poised to Become Chosen as International Boxing President, Will Guide Boxing Towards Olympic Games in LA 2028
Former world middleweight champion Golovkin will be elected president of the global boxing federation and lead the sport as it heads toward the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and went on to make the highest number of title defenses in middleweight history, is the sole nominee for president approved by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. As a result, he will take charge of World Boxing, which became the governing body for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.
This position was previously occupied by the former international boxing body, but it was expelled by the IOC in 2023 following a string of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.
In his platform, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose initial term lasts through 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.
“As an amateur, I proudly won a second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that characterize the sport,” he stated. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my integrity, respect, and commitment to clean competition.
“I am committed to improving oversight, ensuring financial transparency, advancing tech solutions to guarantee fair judging, and creating more chances 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 Paris 2024 Games. Nonetheless, after last year’s Olympics were marred by rows over sex eligibility, it declared a need for a new partner by the 2028 Olympics.
In the month of February, it officially recognized the new boxing federation, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament 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 Olympic committee is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
