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Ex-middleweight world titleholder Gennady Golovkin is slated to be elected president of the global boxing federation and lead the sport as it prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games in LA.

Golovkin, who earned a silver medal 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. As a result, he will take charge of World Boxing, 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 2023 following a series of judging, corruption and governance scandals.

In his manifesto, the 43-year-old Golovkin, whose initial term runs until 2027, promised to rebuild confidence in the sport and ensure boxing’s future in the Olympic lineup, starting with the 2028 LA Olympics.

“As an amateur, I proudly won a silver medal at the Olympic Games Athens 2004, symbolizing Kazakhstan but the values of fair play and discipline that define Olympic boxing,” he wrote. “As a professional, I won numerous world titles, recognized for my honesty, sportsmanship, and dedication to fair play.

“I am committed to improving oversight, guaranteeing open finances, advancing tech solutions 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 Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris 2024 Games. Nonetheless, after the recent Games were marred by rows over gender eligibility, it declared a need for a new partner by the 2028 Olympics.

In February, it granted recognition to the new boxing federation, which then hosted the 2025 global tournament in the city of Liverpool. For that event, World Boxing introduced a mandatory sex screening test, to determine the eligibility of boxers of both sexes, a move that the IOC is also considering for LA 2028.