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Ex-middleweight world titleholder Golovkin will be elected president of the global boxing federation and lead the sport as it prepares for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

Golovkin, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and went on to make the most world title defences in the history of the middleweight division, is the only presidential candidate endorsed by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for the upcoming vote. Consequently, he will assume leadership of the boxing governing body, which was established as the authority for Olympic-style amateur boxing this year.

That role used to be held by the International Boxing Association, 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, vowed to restore trust 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 second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.

“I am dedicated to strengthening governance, ensuring financial transparency, advancing tech solutions to ensure impartial scoring, and creating more chances for athletes of all genders in every region of the world.”

The International Olympic Committee directly managed the boxing events at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2024 Paris Olympics. However, after the recent Games were marred by disputes about gender eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator by 2028.

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