LAS VEGAS — The last time Brian Viloria was in the ring he suffered the worst defeat of his career. He got knocked down, and took a thrashing in a one-sided ninth-round knockout loss to pound-for-pound king and then-flyweight world champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez.

That was in October 2015, in a fight that was the co-feature on a card headlined by Gennady Golovkin-David Lemieux, and it seemed quite possible that it would be the last time Viloria would fight. After all, he has been a pro since 2001; after representing the United States in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, and fighters in the smallest weight classes usually don’t have long careers. At 35, Viloria is ancient for a flyweight.

Viloria took some time off, spending the past year contemplating his future, and about a month ago he finally came to a conclusion. During a post-fight news conference Saturday night for the Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas fight at the Thomas and Mack Center, which he worked on as a broadcaster for the telecast in the Philippine, Vargas discussed his future with ESPN.

“It took me a year,” Viloria said. “All through this past year I was thinking what is next for me? Do I still want to be involved in the sport? Do I still want to continue on, given that I am getting up there in age? As the days were going by I found myself like, I have this itch to get back at least one more title, or at least try to make one more run and see where I’m at.”

And that’s what the former two-time junior flyweight and former unified flyweight world titleholder plans to do.

Viloria (36-5, 22 KOs) said he is in the process of finalizing a promotional agreement with Akihiko Honda’s Teiken Promotions, the No. 1 promoter in Japan. Viloria’s career-long manager Gary Gillelsohn is handling the paperwork with Teiken and Viloria said he hopes to return to the ring soon.

“Right now we’re just ironing out the deal and Gary is going over the contract, but I’ve already been in the gym for a month trying to get myself back in the groove,” Viloria said. “Maybe (I will) fight end of the year, early next year, first quarter. That’s what our plans are, possibly in Japan.”

There is a much more robust market for flyweights in Asia than there is in the United States, one of the main reasons why Viloria, a Filipino-American from Hawaii known as “The Hawaiian Punch,” decided to go with Honda.

Viloria said that even after all these years he still has a great desire to fight.

“I love the sport,” he said. “Right now I’m running on my passion for the sport. This is something I’ve been doing since I was 5 years old. I feel like I was born to do this, but realistically my time is limited. I’m 35. But I don’t feel that way. That is the reason I decided to continue on with it.”

Viloria, the last man standing from an Olympic team that also included Jermain Taylor, Jeff Lacy and Rocky Juarez, won his first world title in 2005, a smashing first-round knockout of Erick Ortiz for a junior flyweight title.

Viloria went on to defeat top opponents such as Jose Antonio Aguirre and Ulises Solis before winning a flyweight belt against Julio Cesar Miranda in 2011. He beat quality foes such as Giovani Segura, Omar Nino (to avenge a loss at junior flyweight) and Hernan “Tyson” Marquez (in a unification fight) before losing the belts to Juan Francisco Estrada in 2013. Viloria then won four in a row before the loss to Gonzalez. Now he is focused on getting at least one more title shot at flyweight.

“I’ve been in the gym for the last month,” he said. “I can still make 112 easy.”

When asked what kind of opponent he had in mind, he mentioned two in particular.

He had just watched Chinese icon Zou Shiming (9-1, 2 KOs), the two-time Olympic gold medallist, win a vacant flyweight title, on the Pacquiao-Vargas undercard.

“We want a champion, so maybe Zou Shiming. Maybe that’s a possibility,” he said.

Then he named the Philippines’ Donnie Nietes (39-1-4, 22 KOs), a former strawweight and junior flyweight world titleholder.

“We’ve got some intriguing fights at that weight,” Viloria said.

Although Nietes moved up to flyweight this year and does not have a world title, a showdown between Nietes and Viloria would be a big deal in the Philippines — and an opportunity for Viloria to face off with a fighter who has been one of the best smaller-weight fighters in the world for many years.