Gennady Golovkin Set to Be Chosen as International Boxing President, Will Guide Boxing Towards Olympic Games in LA 2028
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Gennady Golovkin is slated to be chosen as the head of the global boxing federation and lead the sport as it prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.
Golovkin, who won Olympic silver in Athens in 2004 and went on to make the highest number of title defenses 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 Olympic-style amateur boxing this year.
That role was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was banished by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a string of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his platform, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose initial term runs until 2027, promised to rebuild confidence in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic lineup, starting with the Los Angeles 2028.
“As an amateur, I proudly won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, representing not only Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that characterize the sport,” he stated. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.
“I am dedicated to strengthening governance, guaranteeing open finances, advancing tech solutions to guarantee fair judging, and creating more chances for athletes of all genders in every region of the world.”
The IOC 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 said it needed a new partner in time for 2028.
In February, it granted recognition to World Boxing, which then ran the 2025 world championships in the city of Liverpool. For that event, the organization implemented compulsory gender verification, to assess qualification of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also evaluating for LA 2028.
