Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Vasyl next for Donaire-Walters winner?

The bout Saturday night between featherweight titleholder Nonito Donaire and secondary beltholder Nicholas Walters (HBO, 10 ET/PT) at the sold-out StubHub Center in Carson, California, on the Gennady Golovkin-Marco Antonio Rubio undercard shapes up to be very interesting.

But what comes next for the winner could be even more fascinating.

Top Rank's Bob Arum promotes several of the top featherweights, including Donaire (33-2, 21 KOs) and Walters (24-0, 20 KOs). He also promotes two of the other world titleholders, Evgeny Gradovich (19-0, 9 KOs) and Vasyl Lomachenko (2-1, 1 KO), the brilliant two-time Olympic gold medalist, whose pro record is deceiving.

If Arum has his way -- and he hopes HBO will ante up for it -- he would like to match the winner of Donaire-Walters with Lomachenko, assuming he defeats Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo (52-1, 33 KOs) on Nov. 22 on the Manny Pacquiao-Chris Algieri HBO PPV undercard.

"The winner of Donaire-Walters against Lomachenko is a massive, massive fight, especially if it's Donaire who wins," Arum told ESPN.com. "I would look forward to matching Saturday's winner with Lomachenko if he beats the Thai guy, who is a tough opponent with a great record. The winner of [Saturday's] fight versus Lomachenko is a major event in my opinion.

"But it's an expensive fight. We all know that. I would hope we can make it work. But, hey, even if HBO doesn't want it, I have other means. I can take it to Asia."

Donaire said he is open to any challenge from a top opponent, but also said one of his goals is to get a rematch with Guillermo Rigondeaux (14-0, 9 KOs), who outpointed him in April 2013 to unify junior featherweight belts.

"The rematch was one of the fights I requested," Donaire said. "I know if I am at my best, I have more than enough to beat him. I want to make that rematch happen. As a fighter and champion, you don't want leave things the way it is."

Donaire moved up to featherweight after the loss but said if Rigondeaux didn't want to come up to 126 pounds, he would be willing to meet him at 124, right between featherweight and junior featherweight.

However, in addition to having Walters in front of him, there is also zero public demand for a Rigondeaux rematch because of how bad the fight was thanks to Rigondeaux's utter lack of engagement.

"If they are willing to do the fight, that would be great. But is [HBO] willing to pay for that? Maybe they don't want to pay for it," Donaire said. "But that's a fight I requested."

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