Gennady Golovkin Set to Be Chosen as World Boxing President, To Steer Sport Toward 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Former world middleweight champion Golovkin will be elected president of the global boxing federation and guide boxing as it heads toward the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and went on to make the highest number of title defenses in the history of the middleweight division, is the only presidential candidate approved by the sport’s independent vetting panel for Sunday’s election. As a result, he will take charge of World Boxing, which became the governing body for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.
This position used to be held by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a string of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.
In his manifesto, the boxing veteran, whose first term runs until 2027, vowed to restore trust in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, beginning at the 2028 LA Olympics.
“As an amateur, I earned with pride a second-place finish at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that characterize the sport,” he wrote. “In my pro career, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, known for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.
“I am committed to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, advancing tech solutions to ensure impartial scoring, and expanding opportunities for men and women in every region of the world.”
The International Olympic Committee organized the boxing tournaments itself at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, after last year’s Olympics were overshadowed by disputes about sex eligibility, it declared a need for a new partner by the 2028 Olympics.
In February, it officially recognized World Boxing, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in Liverpool. For the championships, the organization implemented compulsory gender verification, to assess qualification of male and female athletes, a step which the IOC is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
