Gennady Golovkin Set to Be Chosen as International Boxing Leader, To Steer Sport Toward Olympic Games in LA 2028
Former world middleweight champion Golovkin will be elected president of World Boxing and lead the sport as it prepares for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The boxing legend, who earned a silver medal in Athens in 2004 and achieved the most world title defences in middleweight history, is the only presidential candidate endorsed by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for the upcoming vote. As a result, he will take charge of World Boxing, which became the governing body for amateur Olympic boxing recently.
This position used to be held by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in the year 2023 following a string of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his platform, 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 lineup, beginning at the Los Angeles 2028.
“During my amateur career, I earned with pride a second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, representing not only Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he stated. “In my pro career, I won numerous world titles, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.
“I am dedicated to strengthening governance, ensuring financial transparency, developing technology 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 Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, after the recent Games were overshadowed by rows over gender eligibility, it declared a need for a fresh collaborator by 2028.
In February, it officially recognized the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in 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 IOC is also considering for LA 2028.
