Gennady Golovkin Set to Be Chosen as International Boxing Leader, To Steer Boxing Toward Olympic Games in LA 2028
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Golovkin will be elected president of World Boxing 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 most world title defences 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 World Boxing, which was established as the authority for amateur Olympic boxing recently.
This position used to be held by the former international boxing body, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a string of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his platform, the boxing veteran, whose initial term lasts through 2027, vowed to restore trust in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic lineup, beginning at the 2028 LA Olympics.
“During my amateur career, I proudly won a silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing 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, known for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.
“I am committed to strengthening governance, ensuring financial transparency, developing technology to guarantee fair judging, and creating more chances for athletes of all genders in every region of the world.”
The International Olympic Committee organized the boxing tournaments itself at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris 2024 Games. However, after last year’s Olympics were overshadowed by disputes about sex eligibility, it said it needed a new partner in time for the 2028 Olympics.
In the month of February, it granted recognition to the new boxing federation, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in the city of Liverpool. For that event, World Boxing implemented compulsory gender verification, to assess qualification of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also evaluating for LA 2028.
