Golovkin takes leading role to save boxing’s Olympic status

FILE–Gennadiy Golovkin (blue and gold robe) reacts after being defeated by Canelo Alvarez for the Super Middleweight Title at T-Mobile Arena on September 17, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sarah Stier/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Sarah Stier / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Former world champion Gennady Golovkin is taking a leading role in World Boxing, the group aiming to keep the sport on the Olympic program for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

World Boxing said on Thursday that Golovkin would chair an “Olympic commission” tasked with persuading the International Olympic Committee that the breakaway organization founded last year is fit to run the competitions in Los Angeles.

“For me, personally, as well as for all the sports world, it is important to preserve boxing as an Olympic sport, and this will be my top priority,” Golovkin said in a statement. “I also intend to work closely with the IOC on issues of boxing’s commitment to the Olympic values of honesty, fairness and transparency.”

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Golovkin won an Olympic silver medal in 2004 and, after turning pro, was a longtime world middleweight champion who fought in some of the most lucrative bouts of all time, finishing with a 42-2-1 record. Since retirement, he has become president of Kazakhstan’s national Olympic committee.

Boxing’s Olympic status is uncertain. The IOC has set a deadline of early next year for a credible governing body to be in place after years of turmoil with the International Boxing Association.

The IOC ran the last two Olympic tournaments on its own after first suspending and then banishing the IBA from the Games and has said it no longer wishes to organize the tournament in-house.

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World Boxing lists 44 national governing bodies as members including the United States, Britain and India. It most recently added Japan and Algeria, whose federation is home to Paris Olympic gold medalist Imane Khalif.

Kazakhstan’s national boxing federation isn’t a World Boxing member for now, but said on Thursday it applied for membership around the same time that Golovkin’s new role was announced.

Kazakhstan is regularly among the top medal-winning nations in Olympic boxing and would be World Boxing’s 10th member in Asia.