Golovkin Set to Be Elected World Boxing Leader, To Steer Boxing Towards Olympic Games in LA 2028
Former world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin is slated to be chosen as the head of the global boxing federation and lead the sport as it heads toward the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Golovkin, who earned a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Games and achieved the most world title defences in middleweight history, is the only presidential candidate endorsed by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. Consequently, he will assume leadership of World Boxing, which became the governing body for amateur Olympic boxing recently.
That role was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was banished by the IOC in 2023 following a series of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his platform, the boxing veteran, whose initial term lasts through 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.
“As an amateur, I proudly won a second-place finish 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 won numerous world titles, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.
“I am dedicated to improving oversight, ensuring financial transparency, developing technology to ensure impartial scoring, and expanding opportunities for athletes of all genders in all corners of the globe.”
The International Olympic Committee organized the boxing tournaments itself at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nonetheless, after the recent Games were overshadowed by disputes about gender eligibility, it declared a need for a new partner in time for 2028.
In February, it officially recognized the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For the championships, the organization introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to assess qualification of boxers of both sexes, a step which the Olympic committee is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
