🔗 Share this article

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

The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and achieved the highest number of title defenses in the history of the middleweight division, is the only presidential candidate endorsed by the sport’s independent vetting panel 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.

That role was previously occupied by the former international boxing body, but it was banished by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a series of judging, corruption and governance scandals.

In his manifesto, the boxing veteran, whose initial term runs until 2027, promised to rebuild confidence in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, beginning at the Los Angeles 2028.

“During my amateur career, I earned with pride a second-place finish at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that characterize the sport,” he stated. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, known for my integrity, respect, and commitment to clean competition.

“I am committed to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, 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 2024 Paris Olympics. Nonetheless, after last year’s Olympics were marred by rows over sex eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator in time for 2028.

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