Gennady Golovkin Poised to Become Chosen as International Boxing President, Will Guide Boxing 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 heads toward the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.
Golovkin, who earned a silver medal in Athens in 2004 and achieved the most world title defences in the history of the middleweight division, is the sole nominee for president endorsed by the sport’s independent vetting panel for the upcoming vote. Consequently, he will take charge of World Boxing, which was established as the authority for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.
This position was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in the year 2023 following a series of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.
In his platform, the boxing veteran, whose initial term runs until 2027, promised to restore trust in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic lineup, starting with the Los Angeles 2028.
“During my amateur career, I proudly won a second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, representing not only Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that characterize the sport,” he stated. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.
“I am committed to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, developing technology to guarantee fair judging, and creating more chances for athletes of all genders 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. Nonetheless, after the recent Games were overshadowed by rows over gender eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator in time for 2028.
In the month of February, it granted recognition to World Boxing, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For that event, World Boxing implemented compulsory gender verification, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a step which the IOC is also evaluating for LA 2028.