🔗 Share this article

Ex-middleweight world titleholder Golovkin will be elected president of the global boxing federation and lead the sport as it prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in Athens in 2004 and achieved the most world title defences in the history of the middleweight division, is the sole nominee for president approved by the sport’s independent vetting panel for the upcoming vote. As a result, he will assume leadership of the boxing governing body, which was established as the authority for amateur Olympic boxing this year.

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

“During my amateur career, I proudly won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that characterize the sport,” he wrote. “In my pro career, I won numerous world titles, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.

“I am committed to strengthening governance, ensuring financial transparency, developing technology to guarantee fair judging, and creating more chances for men and women in all corners of the globe.”

The International Olympic Committee directly managed the boxing events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nonetheless, after last year’s Olympics were overshadowed by rows over gender eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator by the 2028 Olympics.

In February, it officially recognized the new boxing federation, 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 boxers of both sexes, a move that the Olympic committee is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.