By Dan Ambrose: WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (31-4, 7 KO’s) is still hoping he can get a shot against 33-year-old Ricky Hatton (45-2, 32 KO’s) if Malignaggi can successfully defend his World Boxing Association title against 22-year-old Pablo Cesar Cano (25-1-1, 19 KO’s) on October 20th at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York.

Malignaggi has been wanting to avenge his loss to Hatton ever since Malignaggi was stopped by Hatton in the 11th round in 2008.

Malignaggi told RingTV “If he’s [Hatton] making a comeback, then I would like to fight him in a rematch, and it’s not going to be the same fight.”

Malignaggi says he wasn’t at his best when he fought Hatton in the past. Supposedly, Malignaggi didn’t use the slickness that he’d used in the past against opponents for the Hatton fight for some reason. It’s hard to buy Malignaggi’s excuses because he had controversial decisions over Herman Ngoudjo and Lovemore Ndou before he fought Hatton. The fact is Malignaggi didn’t have the power to compete with Hatton and he ended up taking a beating because of it. Malignaggi would later lose badly to Amir Khan as well in 1th round TKO defeat in 2010.

The choice of Cano, a light welterweight fringe contender, is an interesting choice for Malignaggi, because Cano isn’t even a welterweight and he was soundly beaten by Erik Morales in a 10th round stoppage in September last year. Cano couldn’t stand up to Morales’ shots and ended up swelling up and getting stopped.

Malignaggi is going to have to try and get a big fight as soon as he can, because he’s not going to be able to keep milking his title against light welterweights, and if he fights a good welterweight, he’s likely going to lose.

Hatton hasn’t said whether he’ll be coming back or not, but if he is, Malignaggi is the perfect guy for him to fight due to his lack of power.