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Ex-middleweight world titleholder Gennady Golovkin is slated to be chosen as the head of World Boxing and guide boxing as it prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

The boxing legend, who earned a silver medal in Athens in 2004 and achieved the highest number of title defenses in the history of the middleweight division, is the sole nominee for president endorsed by the sport’s independent vetting panel for Sunday’s election. Consequently, he will assume leadership of World Boxing, which became the governing body for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.

That role was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was banished by the International Olympic Committee in the year 2023 following a string of judging, corruption and governance scandals.

In his platform, the boxing veteran, whose first term runs until 2027, promised to restore trust in the sport and secure boxing’s long-term place in the Olympic programme, beginning at the Los Angeles 2028.

“As an amateur, I earned with pride a silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he stated. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.

“I am committed to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, advancing tech solutions to guarantee fair judging, and expanding opportunities 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 last year’s Olympics were marred by rows over gender eligibility, it declared a need for a fresh collaborator in time for the 2028 Olympics.

In February, it granted recognition to World Boxing, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For the championships, the organization implemented compulsory gender verification, to assess qualification of boxers of both sexes, a step which the Olympic committee is also evaluating for LA 2028.