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Ex-middleweight world titleholder Gennady Golovkin will be elected president of the global boxing federation and lead the sport as it heads toward the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

The boxing legend, who won Olympic silver in the 2004 Athens Games 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 autonomous selection committee for Sunday’s election. Consequently, he will take charge of the boxing governing body, which became the governing body for Olympic-style amateur boxing recently.

That role used to be held by the International Boxing Association, but it was expelled by the IOC in 2023 following a string of controversies involving judging, corruption, and management.

In his platform, the boxing veteran, whose initial term runs until 2027, promised to rebuild confidence 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 silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the principles of integrity and hard work that define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “As a professional, I became a multiple-time unified world champion, known for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.

“I am committed to strengthening governance, ensuring financial transparency, developing technology to ensure impartial scoring, and expanding opportunities for athletes of all genders in every region of the world.”

The IOC organized the boxing tournaments itself at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Nonetheless, after last year’s Olympics were marred by disputes about gender eligibility, it said it needed a fresh collaborator by 2028.

In February, it granted recognition to the new boxing federation, which then ran the 2025 world championships in Liverpool. For the championships, the organization introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also considering for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.