NEW YORK – If Shakur Stevenson wants to fight Vasiliy Lomachenko, he’ll have to move up from the 130-pound division to the lightweight limit of 135.

When asked directly about boxing the unbeaten Stevenson, Lomachenko stated only that he intends to remain within the 135-pound division to pursue his ultimate goal of becoming boxing’s undisputed champion in that weight class. The 33-year-old Lomachenko discussed potentially facing Stevenson and various other topics following a press conference Thursday at Madison Square Garden to promote his 12-round lightweight fight against Richard Commey on Saturday night.

“I said before I’m still 135,” Lomachenko said. “I want to be undisputed champion in the lightweight division. I have a goal. I have a dream, so I don’t have a plan to go down.”

Stevenson (17-0, 9 KOs), the WBO junior lightweight champion, most wants to oppose Oscar Valdez (30-0, 23 KOs), the WBC super featherweight champ. He has repeatedly questioned why their promoter, Bob Arum, doesn’t want to match them, despite that Stevenson stopped Jamel Herring in the 10th round October 23 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta to become a 130-pound champion.

The 23-year-old Stevenson, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist from Newark, New Jersey, was Valdez’s mandatory challenger when Valdez was the WBO featherweight champion. Mexico’s Valdez moved up instead of defending his 126-pound championship against Stevenson, who later won the then-vacant WBO featherweight title by thoroughly out-boxing Joet Gonzalez in October 2019.

Arum told krikya360.com recently that he is more interested in matching Stevenson against Lomachenko and Valdez versus Emanuel Narvarrete (35-1, 29 KOs), the newest owner of the WBO featherweight title. Mexico’s Navarrete is a promotional free agent, though, which could make putting together a Valdez-Navarrete bout more difficult.

That potential complication aside, Arum “absolutely” considers Lomachenko-Stevenson a pay-per-view fight.

“The fight I wanna do is Shakur and Lomachenko,” Arum said. “I mean, I don’t care if it’s not for a title. That fight can be done. I know Shakur wants to fight Valdez, but a better fight for everybody is Valdez and Navarrete, a big [Mexican] fight.”

The 12-round battle between Ukraine’s Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KOs) and Ghana’s Commey (30-3, 27 KOs) will headline ESPN’s four-bout broadcast from Madison Square Garden (9 p.m. ET; 6 p.m. PT).

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.