By William Mackay: Golden Boy Promotions has set WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (31-4, 7 KO’s) up with what appears to be a nice easy fight against light welterweight Pablo Cesar Cano (25-1-1, 19 KO’s) on October 20th this month at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York.

Cano, 23, has limited experience against quality opposition apart from his 10th round stoppage loss to a past his best Erik Morales last year in September. Malignaggi should be able to beat this guy without any problems. However, there’s now the added pressure put on Malignaggi to make sure nothing goes wrong because if Malignaggi is beaten by Cano, which is definitely a possibility given Malignaggi’s complete lack of power, then Malignaggi can kiss goodbye his potential title defense against Ricky Hatton in 2013.

That’s a fight that will make Malignaggi a lot of money because of Hatton’s star appeal, both in the U.S and in the UK. Golden Boy would likely make Malignaggi-Hatton a pay per view bout as the main attraction. This would likely be Malignaggi’s biggest payday of his career and it could help pave his retirement nicely. Malignaggi obviously isn’t going to stay a champion long given his limited power, size and frame. If Malignaggi can’t get the Hatton bout soon, he’s going to be forced to defend his title against contender Thomas Dulorme and this guy will destroy Malignaggi no ifs ands or buts. That’s a knockout loss waiting to happen for Malignaggi.

However, there’s a chance that Malignaggi might not even get past Cano. That guy has better power than him and is about as fast. His height is the same, but he’s obviously not as good a boxer. It doesn’t matter though. Malignaggi can play his tricks and try and showboat against Cano, but there’s still a good chance that Malignaggi gets beaten by this guy. He’s a young 23, and Malignaggi is getting up there in age at 31.