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Ex-middleweight world titleholder Golovkin will be chosen as the head of World Boxing and guide boxing 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 only presidential candidate endorsed by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for the upcoming vote. 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 expelled by the International Olympic Committee in the year 2023 following a series of judging, corruption and governance scandals.

In his manifesto, the boxing veteran, whose first term runs until 2027, promised to restore trust 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 second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he stated. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, known for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.

“I am dedicated to strengthening governance, guaranteeing open finances, developing technology to ensure impartial scoring, and creating more chances 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 the recent Games were overshadowed by rows over gender eligibility, it declared a need for a new partner in time for 2028.

In February, it officially recognized World Boxing, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in Liverpool. For that event, World Boxing implemented compulsory gender verification, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a step which the Olympic committee is also evaluating for LA 2028.