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

Former world middleweight champion Golovkin will be elected president of World Boxing and guide boxing as it prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and went on to make the highest number of title defenses in middleweight history, 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 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 banished by the IOC in the year 2023 following a series of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.

In his platform, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose initial term runs until 2027, vowed to rebuild confidence in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, starting with 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 principles of integrity and hard work that characterize the sport,” he wrote. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my integrity, respect, and commitment to fair play.

“I am committed to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, 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 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nonetheless, after the recent Games were marred by rows over gender eligibility, it declared a need for a fresh collaborator by 2028.

In February, it officially recognized the new boxing federation, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in Liverpool. For the championships, the organization introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to assess qualification of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also evaluating for LA 2028.