Gennady Golovkin Poised to Become Elected World Boxing Leader, Will Guide Sport 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 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in Athens in 2004 and achieved the highest number of title defenses in middleweight history, is the sole nominee for president 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 this year.

That role was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the IOC in the year 2023 following a series of judging, corruption and governance scandals.

In his manifesto, the boxing veteran, whose first term runs until 2027, promised to restore trust in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, beginning at the Los Angeles 2028.

“During my amateur career, I proudly won a silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, representing not only 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 integrity, respect, and commitment to clean competition.

“I am committed to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, advancing tech solutions to ensure impartial scoring, and creating more chances for men and women in every region of the world.”

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 marred by rows over gender eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator by 2028.

In 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 introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to assess qualification of boxers of both sexes, a move that the Olympic committee is also considering for LA 2028.