Gennady Golovkin Poised to Become Chosen as International Boxing President, To Steer Sport Toward 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Former world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin will be chosen as the head of World Boxing and lead the sport as it prepares for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Golovkin, who earned a silver medal in Athens in 2004 and achieved the highest number of title defenses in the history of the middleweight division, is the only presidential candidate endorsed by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. Consequently, he will assume leadership of World Boxing, which was established as the authority for amateur Olympic boxing recently.
This position used to be held by the former international boxing body, but it was banished by the IOC in the year 2023 following a series of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his manifesto, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose initial term lasts through 2027, vowed to restore trust in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, beginning at the 2028 LA Olympics.
“As an amateur, I proudly won a second-place finish at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, known for my integrity, respect, and commitment to fair play.
“I am dedicated to strengthening governance, guaranteeing open finances, developing technology to guarantee fair judging, and creating more chances for men and women in every region of the world.”
The International Olympic Committee organized the boxing tournaments itself at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, after the recent Games were overshadowed by disputes about gender eligibility, it said it needed a new partner by 2028.
In the month of February, it officially recognized the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For that event, the organization introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
