Golovkin Poised to Become Elected World Boxing President, Will Guide Sport Towards 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Golovkin is slated to be elected president of World Boxing and lead the sport as it heads toward the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.
The boxing legend, 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 only presidential candidate approved by the sport’s independent vetting panel for the upcoming vote. As a result, he will assume leadership of the boxing governing body, which was established as the authority for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.
That role was previously occupied by the former international boxing body, but it was expelled by the IOC in the year 2023 following a series of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.
In his manifesto, the boxing veteran, whose first term runs until 2027, promised to restore trust in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic programme, starting with the 2028 LA Olympics.
“As an amateur, I earned with pride a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, 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 honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.
“I am committed to strengthening governance, guaranteeing open finances, developing technology to ensure impartial scoring, and expanding opportunities for men and women in every region of the world.”
The International Olympic Committee organized the boxing tournaments itself at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, after the recent Games were marred by rows over gender eligibility, it said it needed a new partner by 2028.
In the month of February, it granted recognition to the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For that event, World Boxing implemented compulsory gender verification, to assess qualification of male and female athletes, a step which the Olympic committee is also evaluating for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
