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Sports

Gennady Golovkin Becomes First Kazakhstani Inducted into Boxing Hall of Fame

Former middleweight world champion Gennady Golovkin has become the first representative of Kazakhstan to be officially inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF). This milestone cements “GGG’s” legacy not only as one of the most dominant fighters of his era, but also as a Kazakhstani athlete who has left a lasting imprint on the history of global boxing. Established in 1990, the IBHOF honors boxers, trainers, and promoters who have made significant contributions to the sport. It is located in Canastota, New York, with induction ceremonies traditionally held in summer. Athletes become eligible for induction three years after their last professional bout (previously five years until 2018). Golovkin was nominated this year based on his final official fight in 2022. Although he has not formally announced his retirement, his absence from the ring made him eligible. Hall of Fame inductees are selected by a panel of boxing journalists and historians from the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Canada, Argentina, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, and Mexico. Ballots including Golovkin’s name were distributed on October 1. In the 2025 vote, Golovkin was nominated for the first time and successfully selected alongside American Vernon Forrest and Irishman Steve Collins. Former world champions Antonio Tarver (first nominated in 2024) and Nigel Benn (first nominated in 2017) will also be inducted. The official ceremony will be held June 11-14, 2026, in Canastota. With this honor, Golovkin will join a prestigious group that includes Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, Julio César Chávez, Evander Holyfield, Bernard Hopkins, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, and more. The Hall of Fame now features more than 300 inductees. Golovkin’s dominance in the middleweight division was exceptional. From 2014 onward, he held the WBA, WBC, IBF, and IBO titles at 72.6 kg across various years. He set a division record with 23 consecutive knockouts over nine years, the longest knockout streak in middleweight history. Over 90% of his professional wins came by knockout, earning recognition from the Guinness Book of Records as one of the highest KO ratios among champions. He also holds the middleweight record for most successful title defenses, with 22 victories over challengers. Golovkin's amateur record is equally remarkable. Before turning professional, he fought 350 bouts, winning 345, and served as the long-time captain of Kazakhstan’s national team. Since retiring from active competition, Golovkin has taken on a prominent role in sports administration. In February 2024, he became head of Kazakhstan’s National Olympic Committee. In November 2025, he was elected president of the World Boxing Federation, becoming the first Kazakhstani to lead a global sports organization. He also introduced a reform platform focused on transparency and modern management in amateur boxing. Golovkin’s induction into the Hall of Fame marks the natural culmination of a career that helped shape modern boxing and inspire a generation of fans and athletes. For Kazakhstan, it is more than a personal milestone; it is a moment of national pride. Golovkin has become a sporting...

Sports

Kazakhstan’s World Champion Boxer Alimkhanuly Faces Doping Scandal Ahead of Title Unification Bout

Kazakhstan's middleweight world boxing champion Zhanibek Alimkhanuly is embroiled in a doping scandal less than a week before the most significant fight of his career -- a unification bout for three championship titles against Cuba’s Erislandy Lara. A positive test for the banned substance meldonium has thrown his career into jeopardy and may cost him at least one of his two belts. The 29 year-old currently holds the WBO and IBF middleweight titles. He was awarded the WBO belt in 2022 after Demetrius Andrade declined to face him and secured the IBF title in 2023 with a knockout win over Germany’s Vincenzo Gualtieri. Alimkhanuly had since declared his ambition to become the undisputed champion by unifying all the major middleweight belts. His bout with Lara, the WBA titleholder, was scheduled for December 7 and was seen as a crucial step toward that goal. However, on Tuesday evening, news emerged that Alimkhanuly had tested positive for meldonium, a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) since 2016. Studies cited by WADA in 2015 indicated that meldonium enhances endurance, accelerates recovery, and impacts the central nervous system. Under the rules of the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA), Alimkhanuly has 10 days to request analysis of the “B” sample. Regardless, the fight with Lara has been canceled. The Cuban boxer has already agreed to a new matchup against Venezuelan fighter Johan Gonzalez. The World Boxing Organization (WBO) announced it had initiated administrative proceedings and would allow Alimkhanuly’s team to present evidence. “The WBO anti-doping program operates on the principle of strict liability... the athlete is fully responsible for the substances found in his body,” WBO President Gustavo Olivieri said on social media platform X. Alimkhanuly’s team expressed shock at the test results and has called for a retest. “The reason for our surprise is that we first received information about a clean sample, and then about a controversial moment in the second one. We didn't change anything between tests, neither diet nor vitamins. We cannot understand how this could have happened,” the team stated. They confirmed that lawyers and independent experts are now involved, and that testing of the “B” sample is underway. The scandal marks the second high-profile doping case in Central Asian boxing within a short span. Olympic champion Lazizbek Mullojonov of Uzbekistan was recently handed a three-year suspension for violating anti-doping regulations.

Boxing

Kazakhstan’s Golovkin Becomes World Boxing President

Gennadiy Golovkin, the two-time middleweight world champion and 2004 Olympic silver medalist for Kazkhstan, was named president of World Boxing at the federation's inaugural congress in Rome on Sunday. Golovkin, who has been president of Kazakhstan’s National Olympic Committee since last year, will lead the amateur boxing federation into the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He succeeds Boris van der Vorst, a Dutch national who was the first president of World Boxing. “I feel great. I feel more excited. Right now, we have a new team, new view,” Golovkin said after his election to the post. “I have a plan. I have ideas, so many. My goal is bringing boxing’s position back to a high level.” The World Boxing federation was launched in 2023 to address concerns about transparency and governance in amateur boxing that had placed the future of the sport at the Olympics in doubt. That year, the International Olympic Committee, or IOC, expelled the International Boxing Association, the former governing body of amateur boxing, from the Olympic movement because of those corruption concerns. World Boxing, the new amateur boxing federation, has been collaborating with the IOC and said that, by January of this year, it had approved membership applications from 60 national boxing federations around the world. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev congratulated Golovkin. “He has become the first representative of Kazakhstan to lead an international federation of an Olympic sport,” Tokayev said. “This landmark achievement is a testament to the global recognition of Gennady Golovkin’s outstanding accomplishments and his great contribution to boxing worldwide.”

Boxing

Uzbek boxer Mullojonov Gets Three-Year Suspension for Doping Violation

Uzbek heavyweight boxer Lazizbek Mullojonov, who won Olympic gold in Paris last year, has been suspended from amateur bouts for three years because of doping, the International Testing Agency said. “The athlete tested positive for the prohibited substance methasterone metabolites after providing an out-of-competition sample on 11 June 2025,” the agency said in a statement on Friday on behalf of World Boxing, which governs international amateur boxing. Methasterone is a steroid that enhances muscle and strength. The agency said Mullojonov, 26, has agreed to the suspension, which was reduced by one year from the standard period of four years “due to his early admission” of the anti-doping violation. The agency is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. The suspension is retroactive to July 22 of this year, when Mullojonov was provisionally suspended pending the outcome of an investigation, and runs until July 21, 2028. The 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles take place from July 14-30. Under the ruling on Friday, Mullojonov’s competitive results between June 11 of this year, the date of a sample collection, and July 22 are disqualified. The Uzbekistan Boxing Federation had said Mullojonov may have ingested “prohibited doping substances” during a hair transplant last year. It said the surgery occurred on November 19, 2024, at a private clinic in Fergana city in Uzbekistan after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The athlete may have taken medications containing banned substances that were provided by the clinic during the treatment. Mullojonov also won gold in the super-heavyweight category at the Asian Championships in 2022. Despite the suspension from amateur competition, Mullojonov can compete in some professional fights, including one in which he defeated Nigerian boxer Monyasahu Muritador in Tashkent on Friday.

Sports

Retired Kazakhstani, 66, Finds Calling as Long-Distance Swimmer

Askar Ospanov, a retired police major general in Kazakhstan, decided to become a serious swimmer relatively late in life, around the age of 60. Inspiration came when he was cheering from the sidelines at the 2018 Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swimming Race, an annual event in which about 2,500 people swim 6.5 kilometers from the Asian shore to the European side of Istanbul. Ospanov's eldest son, Galym, himself an accomplished athlete, had completed the crossing in one hour and 18 minutes. A favorable current means many swimmers log fast times across the Bosphorus. “Then, about 30–40 minutes later, everyone on the shore suddenly started buzzing. I thought maybe someone had drowned… or perhaps Erdoğan (the president of Turkey) had arrived. I told my kids, ‘Find out what’s going on, quickly!'” 66-year-old Ospanov said. It turned out that beloved Turkish swimmer Levent Aksüt, then in his late 80s, had just finished. “Everyone stood and applauded his achievement,” said Ospanov, who saw Aksüt as a role model for his new passion. In September, the Kazakhstani swam about 15 kilometers across the Strait of Bonifacio, from the French island of Corsica to the Italian island of Sardinia, in seven hours and 50 minutes. He has competed in international open-water swimming competitions, including OCEANMAN and X-WATERS events, in numerous places at various distances. He has won prizes in the 60+ category in Dubai, Thailand, at Issyk-Kul Lake in Kyrgyzstan and in Kazakhstan, a landlocked country with big lakes and reservoirs. “If someone wants to start swimming after 60, it’s absolutely necessary to do stretching exercises. The arms and legs will gradually loosen up!” Ospanov said. “Since childhood, I played volleyball,” the Almaty resident said. “Then my knees started hurting, and I couldn’t play volleyball at full strength anymore. Doctors said that for the knee joints, you need movement without load… That meant either cycling or swimming. I didn’t feel like buying a bike, so I chose swimming. With each passing year, swimming gave me more and more strength. Gradually, the results started coming.” Swimming coach Evgeny Alexandrov, who has been awarded the prestigious Master of Sport of International Class title by Kazakhstan’s government, has worked with Ospanov for several years. The coach described his student as tough, punctual, and responsible. However, Alexandrov said, “turning him into an ideal swimmer quickly isn’t possible due to age-related limitations and some acquired health issues,” including knee pain and a right arm weakened by years of playing volleyball, which meant he only breathed on his left side in the pool. “When he was learning to swim, he couldn’t breathe every three strokes — he only inhaled on his left side, resulting in an asymmetrical freestyle stroke with excessive body roll. In open water, if the sun and waves are on the left, it becomes difficult for Askar,” the 44-year-old coach said. Ospanov had that problem to some extent in the Strait of Bonifacio, where proper alignment in the water can offset the challenges of wind, waves and current. “At his...

tennis

Kazakhstan’s Bublik Wraps Best Season as Alternate at ATP Finals

Alexander Bublik’s stellar season isn’t quite over. The Russia-born player from Kazakhstan, ranked 11 in the world, is an alternate at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy this week. Bublik is enjoying himself in Turin, leaving Carlos Alcaraz flat-footed with a spinny underhand serve during a training session with the Spaniard. “Who said practice can’t be fun?!” the Kazakhstani said on Instagram. As first alternate, 28-year-old Bublik could play matches if any of the eight players at the elite event gets injured during the round robin stage. Whatever happens, he has enjoyed his best year as a tennis professional. He won four tour titles in 2025, for a total of eight during his career. He reached the quarterfinals at the French Open this year, falling to world No. 1 Jannik Sinner. It was Bublik’s deepest run at a major tournament and came after a ranking as low as 82 earlier in the year. He also reached his first Masters 1000 semifinal with a three-set win over Alex de Minaur in Paris on October 31. “Honestly I always say that wins don’t make me go through the roof and losses don’t put me to the ground,” Bublik said this year, according to the ATP. “I try to stay stable. I enjoy what I do. I’m happy that I’m able to travel, play tournaments and stay healthy, and the wins are coming… That’s beautiful.” On the women’s side, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan defeated world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday to win the WTA finals for the first time, collecting a record $5.23 million in prize money and 1,500 ranking points.