Few people were more disappointed than Andrew Moloney when Kosei Tanaka lost his WBO super flyweight belt to Phumelele Cafu at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan on Monday night.

The veteran Australian contender, 33, had hoped to land himself a shot at Tanaka in the lucrative Japanese market.

Those dreams were dashed when South Africa’s Cafu delivered the performance of a lifetime, dropping Tanaka in the fifth round and finishing the fight strongly to defeat the four-weight world champion via split decision.

“The plan was to target the WBO and really chase that Tanaka fight, but that all fell apart on Monday night,” said Moloney (26-4-1NC, 16 KOs) to The Ring. “I think the WBO is probably still the direction we will go, but I’m not too sure whether they have a rematch clause and if Tanaka will take it. But after watching last night’s fight I’d be really confident in facing either of those guys and coming out victorious. That’s the way we would like to go.

“I would’ve loved to have fought Tanaka in Japan, with him being a four-division world champion. He is certainly someone I’ve looked at and wanted to fight for a long time now.

“It was a bit difficult watching last night. The way he performed, I’m even more confident than ever that I have what it takes to beat Tanaka.

“I presume they’ll have a rematch and hopefully Tanaka gets that belt back and I can get back in the ring and climb those rankings and maybe that fight will still happen down the track.”

Tanaka moved into Moloney’s orbit four years ago when he made his 115-pound debut. Earlier this year it looked like they were on a collision course too, with Moloney ranked number one by the WBO. But when an offer was made to fight on the undercard of the vacant IBF lightweight title fight between Vasiliy Lomachenko and George Kambosos Jr in Perth, Western Australia in May, Moloney felt he couldn’t turn it down.

That decision ended in disaster. Moloney was matched with Carlos Cuadras, who withdrew from the bout with a ruptured Achilles tendon and was replaced by Pedro Guevara. Moloney entered the bout carrying a torn biceps and was largely reduced to boxing with one hand, limiting his punch output.

Still, Moloney felt he did more than enough to win and was shocked when Guevara was announced the winner by split decision. He was so disappointed he announced his retirement in the ring immediately after the fight but walked back those comments days later.

It was a sliding doors moment in his career.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but watching the Tanaka-Cafu fight made me think that maybe I would’ve done things if I could rewind time a little bit,” explained Moloney.

“I was ranked number one in the WBO before my last fight and I tossed up the possibility of waiting for the Tanaka fight. But the opportunity to fight in Australia on a huge card against Guevara for the WBC interim title came up and to be honest, I sort of ummed and ahhed with it with the Tanaka fight hanging in the balance, but we ultimately decided to stay busy and to take that opportunity to fight in Australia.

“Also having the injury going into the fight, that was another thing I tossed up in my mind, do I get surgery and hold that number one spot and wait for Tanaka, but I made the decision to go into the Guevara fight. Looking back now, maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to do. And watching the way Tanaka fought last night made me think that perhaps I should’ve waited. I’m extremely confident I would’ve beaten Tanaka and taken that belt off him.

“So I’m kicking myself a little bit, but unfortunately you can’t go back in time.”

It has been a frustrating year for Moloney, but he has continued to grind away in the gym as his team works on getting him his next fight. The window of opportunity to box again this year is rapidly closing, but he remains hopeful of returning to the ring in December, most likely in his native Australia.

“I really hope so,” he said. “That’s what I’ve been working on. I’ve been in the gym training hard for a while now, a good couple of months. I’m hoping to get back out before the end of the year.

“At this stage, it’s probably going to have to be December. I’m trying hard to get something locked in, but no luck as of yet. I’m still training away as if a fight is going to happen in December and I’ve got the team working on that at the moment and fingers crossed, we can get it over the line.

“I just hope we can get out before the end of the year and get back in the winners’ circle and begin to climb those rankings again.”

Moloney, who campaigned as a bantamweight for the first three years of his pro career before dropping down to super flyweight, surprisingly said he would even consider moving down another weight class for the right opportunity.

“It’s a difficult time in the super flyweight division,” said Moloney, The Ring’s No.8 contender at 115 pounds. “There’s a lot going on and it’s always hard to plan which route to go as things change so quickly. I’d tip Bam Rodriguez to beat Guevara, then there’s talk of Kazuto Ioka and Fernando Martinez apparently having a rematch on New Year’s Eve. And then there’s talk of Bam, if he wins, fighting the winner of that match in a unification. The WBO looks to be the fastest route to a shot at the title for me, so that’s the way we will go.

“We’ve also been tossing up the idea for a while now of maybe going to flyweight and getting a crack there. Japan has a bit of a scene going on there at the moment as well, but that’s still up in the air. I’d probably be a bit more comfortable at super flyweight, but we will just have to wait and see what happens with Cafu and Tanaka, but as I said, I’d be comfortable and confident facing either one of them, so hopefully we can get that happening sooner rather than later.”