(Photo credit: Ed Diller/DiBella Entertainment) By Jim Dower: This Saturday night we could be seeing the last of former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KOs) when he enters the ring to fight the hard hitting former 140lb champ Danny Garcia (30-0, 17 KOs) in a 12 round bout in the welterweight division from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

While the 34-year-old Malignaggi doesn’t want to think about the possibility that his career could be over if the younger 27-year-old Garcia blitzes him and destroys him early like Malignggi’s last opponent Shawn Porter did last year in April 2014, it’s a very real possibility that will see that take place.

Garcia is a big puncher, and he has nothing that will keep him from wading in and unloading on Malignaggi with his hard left hooks like he did in stopping Rod Salka in 2014. Malignaggi doesn’t have the power to make Garcia think twice about wanting to line him up for one of his huge left hooks.

Even if Malignaggi takes away Garcia’s left hook the same way that Lamont Peterson, Mauricio Herrera and Zab Judah took away his left hook, Garcia can still punch very hard with his right hand. That might be enough for him to score a knockout over Malignaggi.

“I’ve totally blocked myself from thinking past August 1st, because I don’t want to think about the result of the fight,” Malignaggi said via behindthegloves.com. “I just want to go in there and execute my game plan and be the best I can be and the result will be what it is. I haven’t given a lot of thought [what he’ll do if he loses to Garcia]. People kind of assume I’m going to get beat and that’ll be it. It’s weird to think about it that it could just end despite me being in the middle of a major promotion in such a big fight. Like this, it’s over,” Malignaggi said while snapping his fingers.

Malignaggi’s game plan will need to include a lot of movement for him to have a chance of making it the full distance against Danny Garcia. He can’t stand in the pocket against him because he doesn’t have the punching power to fight that kind of fight, and he obviously doesn’t have the chin to fight like that.

It’s not as if we haven’t seen the signs that the end is near for Malignaggi. His knockout loss to Porter last year was a clear sign, as well as his defeat at the hands of Adrien Broner, and his controversial decision win over Pablo Cesar Cano.

It wouldn’t be over for Malignaggi if he loses to Garcia. He could surely continue fighting, but he would have to realize that he would need to be content with being a 2nd tier fighter or a fringe contender at 147. He might be good enough to be some of the lower ranked contenders in the top 15, but if Malignaggi mixes it up with some of the better contenders like Errol Spence Jr., Porter, Marcos Maidana, Brandon Rios and Amir Khan, he’s going to lose and likely lose badly.

Malignaggi might not want to think about being retired by the 27-year-old Garcia, but the odds are against him in this fight. Malignaggi doesn’t have the fire power to keep Garcia off of him, and if all he can do is run from him, then he’ll end up losing by a wide decision. Perhaps that’ll be a minor moral victory for Malignaggi if he can survive to the final bell. He wouldn’t get the win but at least he would be ending his career with his dignity still intact.