By Ernest Osogbue
The turbulence in Olympic boxing may soon come to an end, if indications are anything to go by. This follows the election of Kazakhstan’s former world boxing champion, Gennady Golovkin, as president of World Boxing yesterday.
In an election which took place in Rome, Italy, and where the 43 year old Kazakh, stood as the only candidate, the boxer, who is yet to officially retire from boxing, vowed to restore boxing’s place at the Olympic Games.
The International Olympic Committee, IOC, had expelled the International Boxing Association, IBA, the body which used to oversee amateur boxing at the Olympic Games, from the Olympic movement in 2019. The expulsion came following a rash of complaints about refereeing and judging of the sport, governance issues, and financial accountability. This resulted in the IOC, having to take charge of boxing at the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games.
The place of the sport at the 2028 Games, therefore, became doubtful, with the IOC planning to throw boxing out completely. The formation of World Boxing, a replacement association for the IBA, in 2023, and it’s provisional recognition by the IOC in February this year, are indications that the IOC is willing to soften its stance. This is despite the fact that the IOC would still be in charge of boxing at the 2028 Games, while it monitors the activities of Golovkin and his team.
The Kazakh boxer, a 2004 Olympic silver medallist in the middleweight division, has vowed to restore the integrity of the sport, by putting athletes first, and restoring financial integrity. Widely regarded as one of the greatest middleweight boxers of his generation, Golovkin amassed a record of 45 fights, with only two defeats, winning multiple titles along the way. The two defeats he suffered came at the hands of his nemesis, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez of Mexico, with whom he had a trilogy of fights, the first of which ended in a controversial draw, which many believe Golovkin won.
In his victory speech after his election, Golovkin vowed to build an association which athletes can trust, and an organization that the IOC can believe in. It remains to be seen how the Kazakh boxer would work to unify the boxing family and then restore boxing to its Olympic glory days.
