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 won Olympic silver 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 autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. Consequently, he will take charge of the boxing governing body, which was established as the authority for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.
This position used to be held by the former international boxing body, but it was expelled by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a string of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his manifesto, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose initial term lasts through 2027, vowed to rebuild confidence in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, starting with the Los Angeles 2028.
“As an amateur, I proudly won a second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, representing not only Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that define Olympic boxing,” he stated. “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 guarantee fair judging, and expanding opportunities for athletes of all genders in every region of the world.”
The International Olympic Committee directly managed the boxing events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris 2024 Games. Nonetheless, after last year’s Olympics were overshadowed by rows over sex eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator by the 2028 Olympics.
In the month of February, it granted recognition to 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 male and female athletes, a step which the Olympic committee is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
