By Keith Idec

LAS VEGAS – Vasyl Lomachenko mentioned the fighter who drew with Orlando Salido in 2016’s probable “Fight of the Year” as the man he’d like to face next.

Lomachenko’s promoter prefers a rematch against Salido himself. Mexico’s Salido defeated Lomachenko by split decision in the Ukrainian southpaw’s second professional fight in March 2014.

Arum believes the timing is perfect for his emerging star to try to avenge his lone professional loss.

“He lost in the fight with Salido because he really shouldn’t have been in there that soon with a guy like Salido in his second professional fight,” Arum said following Lomachenko’s seven-round domination of then-unbeaten Nicholas Walters on Saturday night at The Cosmopolitan. “But he wanted that. And the referee was atrocious, Laurence Cole. I mean, I’ve never seen something so bad. But I know this kid. He’s gonna wanna fight Salido for a rematch. And I think we’ll be able to do that. … I think Salido would be good. And I think the Manny [Pacquiao] fight would be a possibility for the second half of 2017. That’s a possibility.”

The 36-year-old Salido (43-13-4, 30 KOs, 1 NC), who fought to a crowd-pleasing majority draw with Francisco Vargas on June 4 in Carson, California, has said he’s willing to fight Lomachenko again. Lomachenko isn’t so sure, especially since the two-time Olympic gold medalist has shown significant improvement and beaten world-class opponents relatively easily since their first fight.

“Now probably now I need to think [about Salido],” Lomachenko said through his Egis Klimas, his manager/translator. “Because [Salido] was telling [people] that he wants to do it, then he doesn’t want to do it. So I can think about that.”

Salido caused controversy by weighing in at 128¼, 2¼ above the featherweight limit, the day before he fought Lomachenko in San Antonio.

The 28-year-old Lomachenko seemed more interested in facing Vargas (23-0-2, 17 KOs), who holds the WBC world 130-pound championship, the winner of a fight that’ll pit WBA “super” super featherweight champion Jezreel Corrales (20-1, 8 KOs, 1 NC) and former champ Takashi Uchiyama (24-1-1, 20 KOs), WBA world super featherweight champion Jason Sosa (20-1-4, 15 KOs) or the winner of a January 14 bout between IBF title-holder Jose Pedraza (22-0, 12 KOs), of Puerto Rico, and Baltimore’s Gervonta Davis (16-0, 15 KOs) at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center (Showtime).

“First of all, I want to fight somebody who has a title, a champion,” Lomachenko said. “Probably Vargas, the WBC [champion]. Maybe the IBF or WBA [champion]. Somebody who is a champion.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.