Marcos Maidana calls out Paulie Malignaggi for WBA title fight

Marcos Maidana took to Twitter tonight to congratulate Paulie Malignaggi on a hard-fought and debated win over Pablo Cesar Cano on Showtime, but also took the chance to let the self-proclaimed "Twitter King" know that he wants a piece of him next year, and a shot at his WBA welterweight title:

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

Malignaggi (32-4, 7 KO) wasn't at his best tonight, but gutted out a win, getting off the canvas in the 11th round to take a split decision over the tough young Mexican. Like Malignaggi, Maidana (32-3, 29 KO) is really a natural junior welterweight fighting at welterweight these days, and went 1-1 in 2012, losing badly to Devon Alexander before stopping Jesus Soto Karass in a Fight of the Year contender on September 15.

Working in Maidana's favor is that he's been a WBA favorite for a while now, and the win over Soto Karass netted him the WBA Inter-continental belt. He's currently the No. 2 ranked WBA contender.

Malignaggi is unlikely to make any decisions before the end of the year, as he'll probably wait and see how Ricky Hatton does on November 24 against Vyacheslav Senchenko. The biggest fight out there for Malignaggi may be a desired rematch with Hatton, but Ricky has to beat a credible opponent first, and then they might be able to talk turkey on that fight. If that does not come off, Maidana is as good an option as is out there, most likely, and it's not a bad fight at all, and with both under the Golden Boy banner, probably very easy to make.