🔗 Share this article

Former world middleweight champion Golovkin will be chosen as the head of World Boxing and guide boxing as it prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

The boxing legend, who earned a silver medal in Athens in 2004 and achieved the highest number of title defenses in the history of the middleweight division, is the sole nominee for president endorsed by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. As a result, he will assume leadership of the boxing governing body, which became the governing body for amateur Olympic boxing this year.

This position 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 initial term lasts through 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 earned with pride a second-place finish at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, representing not only Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he stated. “In my pro career, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.

“I am committed to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, developing technology to guarantee fair judging, and expanding opportunities for men and women in all corners of the globe.”

The IOC organized the boxing tournaments itself at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nonetheless, after last year’s Olympics were marred by rows over sex eligibility, it said it needed a new partner by 2028.

In the month of February, it officially recognized World Boxing, which then ran the 2025 world championships in the city of Liverpool. For the championships, World Boxing introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a step which the Olympic committee is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.