Gennady Golovkin Set to Be Elected World Boxing Leader, Will Guide Sport Towards Olympic Games in LA 2028
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Gennady Golovkin will be chosen as the head of World Boxing and lead the sport as it prepares for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The boxing legend, who earned a silver medal 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 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 recently.
That role was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a series of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his manifesto, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose initial 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 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 stated. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, recognized for my integrity, respect, and commitment to clean competition.
“I am dedicated to improving oversight, ensuring financial transparency, advancing tech solutions to ensure impartial scoring, and creating more chances for athletes of all genders in every region of the world.”
The IOC organized the boxing tournaments itself at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, after the recent Games were marred by rows over sex eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator by the 2028 Olympics.
In the month of February, it officially recognized World Boxing, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in the city of Liverpool. For that event, World Boxing introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also evaluating for LA 2028.
