Gennadiy Golovkin, Kazakhstan’s former middleweight world champion, and current head of the National Olympic Committee, has been nominated for the presidency of World Boxing, the international boxing federation. He is also running concurrently for a vicepresidential post and a seat on the Board of Directors.
World Boxing was created in April 2023 as an alternative to the International Boxing Association (IBA) after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended it from hosting Olympic qualifying tournaments citing governance problems, corruption scandals and nontransparent refereeing.
At its founding the association included only six countries, United States, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the Philippines but by late 2025 it has grown considerably. In September 2024 Golovkin became Chair of World Boxing’s Olympic Commission, whose key task is to work with the IOC to keep boxing in the Olympic programme and gain official recognition for the new organisation.
The next World Boxing leadership elections will take place on 23 November 2025 in Rome as part of the World Boxing Congress. The incumbent president, Dutchman Boris van der Vorst, has announced he will not seek reelection.
According to the organisation’s press service, Golovkin has been nominated for three positions simultaneously, president, vicepresident and board member. Election to one position automatically excludes voting for the others.
Two other candidates for the presidency have been announced: Mariolis Charilaos of Greece. A number of other candidates are also running for the vicepresidential and board seats.
As previously reported by The Times of Central Asia, in 2025 World Boxing held its first amateur world championship, with Kazakhstan’s team winning the overall team competition.
