Golovkin Poised to Become Chosen as International Boxing President, To Steer Boxing Toward 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Former world middleweight champion Golovkin is slated to be chosen as the head of the global boxing federation 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 highest number of title defenses 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 International Olympic Committee in the year 2023 following a string of judging, corruption and governance scandals.
In his platform, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose initial term runs until 2027, promised to restore trust in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, starting with the 2028 LA Olympics.
“During my amateur career, I proudly won a second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, known for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.
“I am dedicated to improving oversight, ensuring financial transparency, developing technology to ensure impartial scoring, and expanding opportunities for men and women 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 rows over sex eligibility, it said it needed a new partner in time for the 2028 Olympics.
In February, it granted recognition to World Boxing, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in Liverpool. For that event, World Boxing implemented compulsory gender verification, to assess qualification of male and female athletes, a move that the IOC is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
