The undisputed males’s light-weight champion retained his world titles for the second time by controversially edging an absorbing tactical battle on the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday evening, shifting to 30-0.

Former featherweight and super-featherweight world champion Stevenson was in attendance at ringside as speak continues to construct of a possible blockbuster future showdown between the unbeaten American rivals, stating a perception shared by many others - together with many of the crowd - that Lomachenko had clearly gained the battle.

“He [Lomachenko] won. He won that fight,” Stevenson informed ESPN contained in the ring. “He landed the cleaner punches, the cleaner shots on Dev. He pushed the pace.”

Haney now faces an agonising determination about whether or not to stay at light-weight or else select to voluntarily vacate his belts and transfer as much as the 140lbs division, having reiterated his struggles to make the burden.

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If he chooses to stay in arguably boxing’s most stacked division, then there are a large number of giant fights that could possibly be made - not least towards the likes of Stevenson and Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, who dominated Ryan Garcia final month.

“Let’s make it happen, I think that’s the fight that should happen next,” Stevenson stated of dealing with Haney. “Devin is not on my level and I’m going to show it.

“He’s a tough fighter but it’s a high skill level within me and I feel like he’s not on my level. Bill [Haney, Devin’s father and trainer] called me out after my last fight [against Shuichiro Yoshino in April] and now I’m here, and they ran out of the ring.

“They saw me just now, they said something and ran out of the ring. They got a little scared. I can’t wait.”

Asked about his future plans after squeezing previous Lomachenko, Haney stated: “I’ve been at 135 for a long, long time. This was my 30th fight, I’ve been here at 135 since I was 16 years old. We need to go back to the lab and figure out what’s next.

“It’s always been tough for me to make the weight and I’ve accomplished everything at 135. I’ve just beaten a future Hall of Famer. This is my eighth title defence, so we’ve just got to see.

“There’s a lot of great fighters still in the 135-pound division, so we’ll see. If it makes sense, then we’ll be at 135.

“We’ve got to see and go back to the drawing board. We’ve got fighters like Shakur, we’ve got fighters like Gervonta. The list goes on and on.”

There was one transient alternate between Haney and Stevenson contained in the ring on Saturday, with the champion barking at his rival: “I’m number one.”

A smiling Stevenson repeatedly responded: “For now.”