By Dan Ambrose: WBA regular middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (21-0, 18 KO’s) has picked from the bottom of the World Boxing Association rankings to find his next opponent Lajuan Simon (23-3-2, 12 KO’s) to defend his title against on October 15th in Golovkin’s home country of Almaty, Kazakhstan. Golovkin is milking his title like a champion.

This will be the 29-year-old Golovkin’s third title defense, and sadly about the same in quality in terms of what he’s been fighting since capturing the WBA belt in 2010. Simon, 32, is ranked #14 by the WBA and has lost three out of his last five fights, which is pathetic for a title challenger.

Why Simon is still ranked in the top 15 by the WBA after that many recent losses is the big question. The other question is why is Golovkin fighting this guy? He’s already had two easy title defenses against Nilson Julio Tapia and Kassim Ouma. You would think it’s about time Golovkin step it up a level and face someone like Hassan N’Jikam, Andy Lee, Matthew Macklin, Matt Korobov or Peter Quillin.

It just looks like Golovkin is milking his title and avoiding those guys. Simon lost his last fight against journeyman Dianisio Mirandaa by a 12 round decision last December. That alone should have made it impossible for Golovkin to fight Simon.

Why is he facing a guy that was just beaten when you’ve got a lot of highly ranked fighters that are still winning? Golovkin is off to a terrible start as the WBA regular champion, and seems to have taken a page out of WBA Super World middleweight champion Felix Sturm’s playbook in how to milk a title for as long as possible without facing any threats. It’s disappointing to say the least if you’re a boxing fan to see fighters like this holding down a belt.