Gennady Golovkin Set to Be Chosen as International Boxing President, Will Guide Sport Toward 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Gennady Golovkin is slated to be chosen as the head of World Boxing and guide boxing 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 assume leadership of World Boxing, which became the governing body for amateur Olympic boxing this year.
This position was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the IOC in 2023 following a series of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his platform, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose first term lasts through 2027, vowed to rebuild confidence in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic programme, beginning at the 2028 LA Olympics.
“During my amateur career, I earned with pride a second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, representing not only Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that define Olympic boxing,” he stated. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.
“I am dedicated to improving oversight, ensuring financial transparency, advancing tech solutions to guarantee fair judging, and expanding opportunities for men and women in every region of the world.”
The IOC organized the boxing tournaments itself at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, after last year’s Olympics were marred by disputes about sex eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator in time for the 2028 Olympics.
In February, it granted recognition to the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For the championships, the organization implemented compulsory gender verification, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a step which the IOC is also considering for LA 2028.