Gennady Golovkin Poised to Become Chosen as International Boxing President, To Steer Boxing Towards Olympic Games in LA 2028
Former world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin will be elected president of the global boxing federation and lead the sport as it heads toward the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.
Golovkin, 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 sole nominee for president approved by the sport’s independent vetting panel for Sunday’s election. As a result, he will assume leadership of World Boxing, which was established as the authority for amateur Olympic boxing recently.
This position was previously occupied by the former international boxing body, but it was banished by the International Olympic Committee in the year 2023 following a string of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.
In his platform, the boxing veteran, whose initial term runs until 2027, vowed 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 earned with pride a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” 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 dedicated to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, advancing tech solutions to ensure impartial scoring, and expanding opportunities for athletes of all genders in all corners of the globe.”
The IOC organized the boxing tournaments itself at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nonetheless, after last year’s Olympics were marred by disputes about sex eligibility, it declared a need for a new partner in time for 2028.
In the month of February, it granted recognition to World Boxing, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in Liverpool. For that event, World Boxing implemented compulsory gender verification, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also considering for LA 2028.
