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Former world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin will be chosen as the head of World Boxing and lead the sport as it heads toward the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

Golovkin, who won Olympic silver in Athens in 2004 and went on to make the most world title defences in middleweight history, is the sole nominee for president endorsed by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for the upcoming vote. As a result, he will assume leadership of the boxing governing body, 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 the year 2023 following a series of judging, corruption and governance scandals.

In his manifesto, the boxing veteran, whose initial term runs until 2027, vowed to rebuild confidence in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place 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, representing not only Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that characterize the sport,” he stated. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, known for my integrity, respect, and commitment to fair play.

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

The IOC 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 disputes about sex eligibility, it declared a need for a fresh collaborator by the 2028 Olympics.

In the month of February, it granted recognition to World Boxing, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in the city of Liverpool. For the championships, World Boxing introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to assess qualification of male and female athletes, a move that the Olympic committee is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.