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Former world middleweight champion Golovkin will be elected president of World Boxing and lead the sport as it heads toward the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in Athens in 2004 and achieved the most world title defences in the history of the middleweight division, is the sole nominee for president approved by the sport’s independent vetting panel for Sunday’s election. As a result, he will take charge of the boxing governing body, which became the governing body for amateur Olympic boxing this year.

This position was previously occupied by the International Boxing Association, but it was banished by the International Olympic Committee in 2023 following a series of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.

In his platform, the boxing veteran, whose initial term runs until 2027, vowed to restore trust in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic lineup, starting with the 2028 LA Olympics.

“During my amateur career, I proudly won a silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, representing not only Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that characterize the sport,” he wrote. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, known for my integrity, respect, and commitment to clean competition.

“I am committed to improving oversight, ensuring financial transparency, 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 Paris 2024 Games. Nonetheless, after the recent Games were overshadowed by disputes about sex eligibility, it declared a need for a fresh collaborator by 2028.

In the month of February, it officially recognized the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in the city of Liverpool. For that event, World Boxing introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of male and female athletes, a move that the Olympic committee is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.