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Former world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin will be elected president of World Boxing and lead the sport as it heads toward the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

Golovkin, who earned a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Games and achieved the most world title defences in middleweight history, is the sole nominee for president approved by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. As a result, he will assume leadership of World Boxing, which became the governing body for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.

This position used to be held by the former international boxing body, but it was banished by the IOC in 2023 following a series of judging, corruption and governance scandals.

In his platform, the boxing veteran, whose first term runs until 2027, vowed to rebuild confidence in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic programme, starting with the Los Angeles 2028.

“As an amateur, I proudly won a silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that characterize the sport,” he stated. “In my pro career, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my integrity, respect, and commitment to clean competition.

“I am committed to strengthening governance, ensuring financial transparency, advancing tech solutions to guarantee fair judging, and expanding opportunities for men and women in every region of the world.”

The IOC organized the boxing tournaments itself at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nonetheless, after last year’s Olympics 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 officially recognized the new boxing federation, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in Liverpool. For the championships, World Boxing introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of male and female athletes, a step which the IOC is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.