NEW YORK – Vasiliy Lomachenko would still love to fight Gervonta Davis.

The former unified lightweight champion is pretty certain, though, that the feeling isn’t mutual. Lomachenko was the only high-profile lightweight who wasn’t even mentioned as a potential opponent for Davis during a post-fight press conference Sunday night, after Davis defeated Mexican contender Isaac Cruz by unanimous decision in what was the most difficult fight of the unbeaten Baltimore native’s eight-year pro career.

Lomachenko noted after his own press conference Thursday at Madison Square Garden to promote his fight against Richard Commey on Saturday night that Floyd Mayweather, Davis’ promoter, has made it perfectly clear that he has no intention of matching Davis against him. The 33-year-old Lomachenko is an even less appealing opponent now that the highly skilled southpaw no longer owns the four lightweight titles that he lost to Teofimo Lopez in October 2020.

“I always said I’m open for the fight [with Davis], but you know boxing politics,” Lomachenko told a group of reporters. “You know we have different promoters. Mayweather said, every time he said, ‘Hey, we have our way and forget about [me]. We’re making money.’ ”

When asked why he believes Mayweather has kept Davis away from him, Lomachenko replied, “Because they know I have real skills.”

Davis (26-0, 24 KOs), who owns the WBA’s secondary 135-pound title, stated Sunday night that he is willing to fight any top lightweight in his first appearance of 2022. Ukraine’s Lomachenko (15-2, 11 KOs), a three-division champion who won two Olympic gold medals, still isn’t optimistic that they’ll finally fight.

“They fight only on Showtime and they’re fighting with guys who they believe they can win this fight,” Lomachenko explained. “They pair their fighters with opponents they feel their boxers can [beat].”

The 27-year-old Davis, who also is affiliated with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions, has fought either on Showtime or Showtime Pay-Per-View in each of his past 10 appearances. His narrow win versus Cruz (22-2-1, 15 KOs) headlined a Showtime Pay-Per-View event at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Lomachenko is promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., which has an exclusive content agreement with ESPN. The 12-round bout between Lomachenko and Ghana’s Commey (30-3, 27 KOs) is the main event of a four-fight telecast scheduled to start Saturday at 9 p.m. ET and 6 p.m. PT.

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