Golovkin Set to Be Chosen as International Boxing President, Will Guide Boxing Towards 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Former world middleweight champion Golovkin will be elected president of World Boxing and lead the sport as it heads toward the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Golovkin, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and achieved the most world title defences in middleweight history, is the sole nominee for president approved by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for the upcoming vote. As a result, he will assume leadership of the boxing governing body, which was established as the authority for amateur Olympic boxing recently.
This position was previously occupied by the former international boxing body, but it was banished by the International Olympic Committee in the year 2023 following a string of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.
In his platform, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose first term runs until 2027, vowed to restore trust in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, starting with the Los Angeles 2028.
“During my amateur career, I earned with pride a silver medal 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 became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my integrity, respect, and commitment to clean competition.
“I am dedicated to strengthening governance, ensuring financial transparency, developing technology to ensure impartial scoring, and creating more chances for men and women in all corners of the globe.”
The International Olympic Committee organized the boxing tournaments itself at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the Paris 2024 Games. However, after last year’s Olympics were overshadowed by rows over sex eligibility, it declared a need for a fresh collaborator by 2028.
In February, it granted recognition to the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in the city of Liverpool. For that event, the organization introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to assess qualification of male and female athletes, a step which the IOC is also evaluating for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
