Taking a loss is the last thing Steven Nelson was expecting but he isn’t discouraged by it.

Heading into his showdown against Diego Pacheco, Nelson began beating on his chest as confidence seeped out of his pores. Ultimately, however, there’s a reason why The Ring’s No. 3 ranked super middleweight is on the verge of landing a world title shot.

The wide scorecards weren’t exactly indicative of how their matchup played out this past Saturday night, but Nelson (20-1, 16 KOs) didn’t complain. He simply strode over to his much younger opponent, shook his hand, and walked out of The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.

Keeping his head down would be a sign of demoralization. So instead, Nelson is walking around with his head held high. In terms of what he wants to do next, the 36-year-old believes that his options are a mile long.

Coming off a loss, Nelson won’t be selective, he’s simply hoping that an elite-level guy will give him a shot.

“I want to fight any of those guys,” Nelson recently told a group of reporters while sporting a pair of dark shades. “I hope they call me out. I want all of them.”

We all remember the Floyd Mayweather era. The all-time great and first-ballot Hall of Famer went his entire 50-fight career undefeated. But while it immortalized him in the history books, countless fighters did their best to replicate him.

In the process of doing so, the fights that fans and media pundits craved, never came to fruition. Ducking big fights and avoiding the best of the best is vexing to Nelson. The current super middleweight contender isn’t a big talker but he did leave a heartfelt message to the rest of his boxing brethren urging them to get away from the ways things have been.

“We got to get away from people avoiding certain people.”