🔗 Share this article

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

The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in Athens in 2004 and went on to make the highest number of title defenses in middleweight history, is the only presidential candidate approved 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 Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.

This position was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the IOC in 2023 following a series of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.

In his manifesto, the boxing veteran, whose first term lasts through 2027, promised to rebuild confidence in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic lineup, beginning at the 2028 LA Olympics.

“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 define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, known for my integrity, respect, and commitment to fair play.

“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 IOC organized the boxing tournaments itself at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, after the recent Games were overshadowed by disputes about gender eligibility, it declared a need for a fresh collaborator in time for 2028.

In the month of February, it granted recognition to the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For that event, the organization implemented compulsory gender verification, to determine the eligibility of male and female athletes, a move that the Olympic committee is also evaluating for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.