Golovkin Set to Be Chosen as World Boxing President, Will Guide Sport Toward Olympic Games in LA 2028

Former world middleweight champion 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 won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and went on to make the highest number of title defenses in middleweight history, is the sole nominee for president approved by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for the upcoming vote. Consequently, he will assume leadership of World Boxing, which was established as the authority for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.

That role was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, 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 43-year-old Golovkin, whose initial term runs until 2027, promised to rebuild confidence in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic lineup, starting with the 2028 LA Olympics.

“During my amateur career, I proudly won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, representing not only Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “In my pro career, I won numerous world titles, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.

“I am committed to strengthening governance, guaranteeing open finances, advancing tech solutions to ensure impartial scoring, 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 Paris 2024 Games. However, after the recent Games were overshadowed by disputes about sex eligibility, it declared a need for a fresh collaborator in time for the 2028 Olympics.

In the month of February, it granted recognition to World Boxing, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For the championships, World Boxing introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to assess qualification of boxers of both sexes, a step which the Olympic committee is also evaluating for LA 2028.