By Eric Thomas: WBA Inter-Continental welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (32-3, 29 KO’s) is hopeful that he can get a shot against WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO’s) next year before someone beats Malignaggi and relieves him of his World Boxing Association 147 pound title.

Maidana said on his twitter page “Congrats to @paulmalignaggi. He had tough fight 2night but won IMO. Hopefully we meet in the ring next year because I want his belt.
— Marcos René Maidana (@ChinoMaidana) October 21, 2012.”

The odds of Maidana getting a title shot against the light hitting Malignaggi are nonexistent until Maidana becomes the mandatory challenger. Malignaggi wants to fight Ricky Hatton next, and the World Boxing Association will likely allow Malingaggi to take that fight next, even though Malignaggi just finished exhausting his optional defense of his WBA title by beating the #10 WBA Pablo Cesar Cano (25-2-1, 19 KO’s).

Malignaggi dodged a bullet last Saturday night in beating Cano by a disputed 12 round split decision at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Malignaggi won by the scores of 114-113 and 114-113 with the third judging giving it to Cano by an 118-109. Despite fighting in his own hometown of Brooklyn, Malignaggi was still booed when the decision was announced that he was the winner. That kind of showed that a lot of boxing fans thought that Cano had done more than enough to deserve the decision win. Malignaggi was knocked down in the 11th round by a hard right hand from Cano.

Maidana would be a nightmare for Malignaggi because he’s a much bigger puncher than Cano, and he’d be tagging Malignaggi with huge power shots in every round. It would be tough for Malignaggi to win this fight because Maidana would be giving him a real beating, and he wouldn’t be slowed down by Malingaggi’s pesky jabs the way that Vyacheslav Senchnko and Cano were. Maidana would walk through Malignaggi’s jabs and land scorching shots for as long as this fight lasts.

Malignaggi made no bones about what he wants to do next, saying after the fight last night “I’d be honored to fight Ricky Hatton.” Now it’s up to Hatton to win his November 24th fight against Senchenko, and the WBA to allow the Hatton-Malignaggi fight go take place.