Golovkin Poised to Become Elected World Boxing Leader, To Steer Boxing Towards Olympic Games in LA 2028
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Gennady 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 earned a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Games and went on to make 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 assume leadership of the boxing governing body, which became the governing body for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.
That role used to be held by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a string of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.
In his manifesto, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose first term lasts through 2027, promised to rebuild confidence in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic programme, starting with the Los Angeles 2028.
“During my amateur career, I proudly won a second-place finish at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, known 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 athletes of all genders in every region of the world.”
The International Olympic Committee organized the boxing tournaments itself at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris 2024 Games. However, after last year’s Olympics were marred by rows over sex eligibility, it said it needed a new partner by 2028.
In the month of February, it officially recognized World Boxing, which then ran the 2025 world championships 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 step which the Olympic committee is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
