Gennady Golovkin Poised to Become Chosen as World Boxing Leader, Will Guide Sport 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 prepares for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in Athens in 2004 and achieved the highest number of title defenses in the history of the middleweight division, is the only presidential candidate approved by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for the upcoming vote. As a result, he will take charge of the boxing governing body, which became the governing body for Olympic-style amateur boxing this year.
This position was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the IOC in the year 2023 following a series of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.
In his platform, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose initial term lasts through 2027, promised to restore trust in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, starting with the Los Angeles 2028.
“During my amateur career, I proudly won a silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.
“I am committed to strengthening governance, guaranteeing open finances, advancing tech solutions to guarantee fair judging, and creating more chances for men and women in all corners of the globe.”
The International Olympic Committee directly managed the boxing events at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, after last year’s Olympics were overshadowed by disputes about gender eligibility, it declared a need for a new partner in time for the 2028 Olympics.
In February, it granted recognition to the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in the city of Liverpool. For the championships, the organization introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
