Gennady Golovkin Set to Be Chosen as World Boxing President, To Steer Boxing Toward Olympic Games in LA 2028

Former world middleweight champion Golovkin is slated to be elected president of the global boxing federation and guide boxing as it prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

The boxing legend, who earned a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Games and achieved the most world title defences in middleweight history, is the sole nominee for president endorsed by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for the upcoming vote. Consequently, he will take charge of the boxing governing body, which became the governing body for Olympic-style amateur boxing this year.

This position used to be held by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a series of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.

In his platform, the boxing veteran, 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.

“During my amateur career, I proudly won a second-place finish at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he stated. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.

“I am dedicated to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, advancing tech solutions to guarantee fair judging, and expanding opportunities 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 Paris 2024 Games. However, after the recent Games were overshadowed by rows over sex eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator by 2028.

In February, it granted recognition to World Boxing, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For that event, the organization introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.