Golovkin Set to Be Chosen as World Boxing President, Will Guide Sport Toward 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Ex-middleweight world titleholder Golovkin will be elected president of World Boxing and guide boxing as it heads toward the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.
Golovkin, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and went on to make the most world title defences in the history of the middleweight division, is the sole nominee for president endorsed by the sport’s independent vetting panel for the upcoming vote. As a result, he will take charge of the boxing governing body, which was established as the authority for amateur Olympic boxing this year.
That role was previously occupied by the former international boxing body, but it was expelled 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 first term runs until 2027, promised to rebuild confidence in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic lineup, starting with the Los Angeles 2028.
“As an amateur, I proudly won a silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he stated. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.
“I am committed to improving oversight, 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 Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris 2024 Games. Nonetheless, after last year’s Olympics were marred by rows over sex eligibility, it said it needed a new partner in time for the 2028 Olympics.
In the month of February, it officially recognized the new boxing federation, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in the city of Liverpool. For the championships, World Boxing implemented compulsory gender verification, to assess qualification of male and female athletes, a move that the Olympic committee is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
