Golovkin Poised to Become Chosen as International Boxing Leader, To Steer Boxing Toward 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Gennady Golovkin will be elected president 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 achieved the highest number of title defenses in middleweight history, is the only presidential candidate approved by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. Consequently, he will assume leadership of the boxing governing body, which became the governing body for amateur Olympic boxing recently.
That role was previously occupied by the former international boxing body, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in the year 2023 following a string of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his manifesto, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose first term runs until 2027, promised to rebuild confidence in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic lineup, beginning at the 2028 LA Olympics.
“As an amateur, I proudly won a silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that characterize the sport,” he stated. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, known for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.
“I am committed to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, developing technology to ensure impartial scoring, and expanding opportunities for athletes of all genders in every region of the world.”
The International Olympic Committee directly managed the boxing events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris 2024 Games. Nonetheless, after the recent Games were overshadowed by disputes about sex eligibility, it declared a need for a fresh collaborator in time for 2028.
In the month of February, it officially recognized the new boxing federation, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in the city of Liverpool. For that event, the organization introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of male and female athletes, a step which the Olympic committee is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.