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Former world middleweight champion Golovkin is slated to be chosen as the head of the global boxing federation and lead the sport as it prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

Golovkin, who won Olympic silver in Athens in 2004 and went on to make the highest number of title defenses in middleweight history, is the sole nominee for president approved by the sport’s autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. Consequently, 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 string of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.

In his platform, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose first 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 earned with pride a second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that characterize the sport,” he wrote. “In my pro career, I won numerous world titles, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to clean competition.

“I am dedicated to improving oversight, ensuring financial transparency, developing technology to guarantee fair judging, and expanding opportunities for men and women in all corners of the globe.”

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 marred by rows over sex eligibility, it said it needed a new partner in time for the 2028 Olympics.

In the month of February, it granted recognition to World Boxing, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in Liverpool. For that event, the organization implemented compulsory gender verification, to assess qualification of boxers of both sexes, a step which the IOC is also evaluating for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.