Gennadiy Golovkin, a two-time middleweight world champion has today been confirmed as new president of World Boxing at the body’s 2025 congress in Rome, Italy.
Golovkin, easily Kazakhstan’s greatest ever boxer, best known as GGG or Triple G, officially expressed his interest in contesting for the WB presidency in October.
There were other candidates but the WB’s independent vetting panel found only Golovkin eligible, hence emerging unopposed ahead of the Rome Congress.
Golovkin, who last fought Canelo Álvarez-the third meeting between the two-in September 2022, is not officially retired. He now takes over from Boris van der Vorst, the Dutchman who led the breakaway from the International Boxing Association (IBA) and formed WB in April 2023.
After the IOC expelled IBA from the Olympic Movement in June 2023, over governance and funding issues, the future of boxing at the Olympics was thrown into unprecedented uncertainty. WB positioned itself as the best alternative and in February 2025, it earned provisional recognition by the IOC as the new governing body for boxing. And in March, the IOC Congress in Greece confirmed that boxing would eventually happen at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Even before his confirmation, Golovkin, a 2004 Athens silver medallist, promised that in his three years of service, he will put athletes first, ensure integrity, innovation, financial stability and development.
‘It is a privilege to be elected as the new President of World Boxing. But this is just the beginning. Starting today, athletes will be at the heart of every decision we make. On the road to LA28, we will restore trust in Olympic boxing to secure our place in Brisbane and beyond. Now it’s time to move forward as one united boxing family,’ Golovkin said in his maiden speech as president.
Meanwhile Ryan O’Shea, from Canada, secured a second term as vice president, with 32 of 56 votes-a 57 percentage victory against Thailand’s Chaiwat Chotima.
Michael Muller, from Germany and Tatsuya Nakama, from Japan, emerged the victors among six candidates who sought to fill the two vacant positions on the executive board.
Golovkin and the other three winners will join the WB executive board which is made-up of the president; three vice presidents; four executive board members; four continental confederation presidents; two athlete representatives; the chairs of the committees for sport and competition, medical and anti-doping, and finance and audit.
Congress 2025 was chaired by WB vice president, Dinah Glykidis. In accordance with WB’s Statutes, 59 National Federations were eligible to take part in the voting which was conducted in-person and online and overseen by an independent, third-party organisation. Scrutineers were onsite to validate the veracity of the election processes and ensure a fair and equitable treatment of all candidates.
The congress also: accepted a series of amendments to the Statutes of World Boxing following provisional recognition by the IOC in February 2025; ratified applications of 49 national federations to join WB; accepted a series of proposals which included the incorporation of World Boxing’s Sex Eligibility Policy into the Competition Rules and associated operational documents; approved the 2025 accounts and the provisional budget for 2026 and accepted Panama’s bid to host WB Congress in 2026.
NEWLY ELECTED
President
Gennadiy Golovkin (Kazakhstan)
Vice president
Ryan O’Shea (Canada)
Executive Board
Michael Muller (Germany)
Tatsuya Nakama (Japan)