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Former world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin is slated to be elected president of the global boxing federation and lead the sport as it heads toward the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

Golovkin, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games and went on to make the highest number of title defenses in middleweight history, 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 was established as the authority for amateur Olympic boxing this year.

That role was previously occupied by the former international boxing body, but it was banished by the International Olympic Committee in the year 2023 following a series of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.

In his manifesto, the boxing veteran, whose first term lasts through 2027, vowed to restore trust in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic programme, starting with the Los Angeles 2028.

“As an amateur, I earned with pride a second-place finish at the 2004 Athens Olympics, representing not only Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “In my pro career, I won numerous world titles, recognized for my integrity, respect, and commitment to fair play.

“I am dedicated to strengthening governance, guaranteeing open finances, advancing tech solutions to ensure impartial scoring, 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 marred by rows over sex eligibility, it said it needed a new partner in time for 2028.

In February, it granted recognition to the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For the championships, World Boxing implemented compulsory gender verification, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a move that the Olympic committee is also evaluating for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.