By Keith Idec

Most American fight fans aren’t all that familiar with Thailand’s Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo.

Bob Arum knows, though, that Piriyapinyo is more than capable of testing Vasyl Lomachenko on the Manny Pacquiao-Chris Algieri pay-per-view undercard Nov. 22 in Macau, China, which was officially announced Thursday. The 29-year-old Piriyapinyo has lost just once during his 10-year pro career, and the defeat came against former WBA featherweight champ Chris John (48-1-3, 22 KOs). Piriyapinyo (52-1, 33 KOs) is 8-0, including six knockouts, since John beat him by unanimous decision (119-109, 119-109, 117-111) in their November 2012 title fight in Singapore.

His last four opponents entered their bouts with a combined record of 55-45-6, but Piriyapinyo is the WBO’s mandatory challenger for the 126-pound championship Ukraine’s Lomachenko won against Gary Russell Jr. (24-1, 14 KOs) in his last fight, June 21 in Carson, Calif.

“I’m thrilled about the undercard,” Arum said. “To watch Lomachenko against a real opponent, the No. 1 contender, a guy who has lost one fight in his whole career, that’s a good fight. But Lomachenko is just so good, as you saw with Gary Russell.”

The 26-year-old Lomachenko (2-1, 1 KO) lost a split decision to Mexico’s Orlando Salido (41-12-2, 28 KOs, 1 NC) in his previous fight, just the second of his professional career, March 1 at Alamodome in San Antonio. Bouncing back to top the previously unbeaten Russell proved to Arum that Lomachenko’s ambition was warranted when the two-time Olympic gold medalist signed with Arum’s Top Rank Inc. during the summer of 2013.

“He’s a great fighter,” Arum said. “Salido took him by surprise. That was his second fight. Salido was over the weight and the referee let Salido get away with a lot of dirty stuff that Lomachenko wasn’t used to. It was a great learning experience. But he is enormously talented and he almost won that Salido fight. He almost took Salido out.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.