🔗 Share this article

Former world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin is slated to be chosen as the head of the global boxing federation and guide boxing as it heads toward the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

Golovkin, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and achieved the highest number of title defenses in middleweight history, is the only presidential candidate approved by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for the upcoming vote. As a result, he will assume leadership of World Boxing, which became the governing body for Olympic-style amateur boxing this year.

This position used to be held by the former international boxing body, but it was expelled by the IOC in the year 2023 following a string of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.

In his manifesto, the boxing veteran, whose initial term lasts through 2027, vowed to restore trust in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic lineup, beginning at the 2028 LA Olympics.

“During my amateur career, I proudly won a silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that define Olympic boxing,” he stated. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.

“I am dedicated to improving oversight, ensuring financial transparency, advancing tech solutions to ensure impartial scoring, and creating more chances for athletes of all genders in all corners of the globe.”

The International Olympic Committee directly managed the boxing events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris 2024 Games. Nonetheless, after the recent Games were overshadowed by rows over sex eligibility, it declared a need for a new partner in time for 2028.

In February, it granted recognition to World Boxing, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in the city of Liverpool. For the championships, World Boxing introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to assess qualification of male and female athletes, a move that the IOC is also considering for LA 2028.