NORFOLK, Virginia — Abdullah Mason came to Keyshawn Davis’ hometown hopeful that beating Jeremia Nakathila would lead to a shot at his WBO lightweight title in his following fight.

Mason remains optimistic about fighting for the WBO 135-pound championship next, but the undefeated southpaw’s probable opponent obviously has changed. Davis gave up his title when he weighed 4.3 pounds above the limit Friday afternoon for his canceled fight with Edwin De Los Santos on Saturday night

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The Ring has confirmed that the WBO is therefore expected to order a bout between Sam Noakes (17-0, 15 KOs), its No. 1 contender from Maidstone, England, and Mason (19-0, 17 KOs), ranked No. 2, for its vacant lightweight title.

Mason, of Cleveland, Ohio, still hopes to fight Davis (13-0, 9 KOs, 1 NC) one day, but he sent a message to Noakes and the British contender’s team following his fifth-round TKO victory over Namibia’s Nakathila (26-5, 21 KOs) in a 10-round main event ESPN aired Saturday night from Scope Arena.

“Let’s make it happen,” Mason told a group of reporters. “Let’s have a great fight and it’ll be amazing. That’s something that people wanna see. I feel like Sam Noakes is definitely a worthy opponent. He let his hands go. Great offense as well. But it’ll be something amazing.”

The heavy-handed Noakes, 27, is The Ring’s No. 10-rated lightweight contender. Mason, 21, has displayed plenty of maturity for his age, power and skill, but he is not ranked among The Ring’s top 10 at 135.

Putting together a Noakes-Mason match shouldn’t be too troublesome. Noakes’ promoter, Frank Warren, and Mason’s promoter, Bob Arum, have worked closely together in recent years, most notably with former WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.

An ambitious Mason is willing to travel to England for an opportunity to become a world champion as well. Mason appreciates boxing’s intense fan base there and is intrigued by fighting in Noakes’ home country.

“Going out to the UK, that’d be crazy,” Mason told The Ring. “I’m definitely all for the idea, if everything is right to go out there, show out there. The one thing about the UK, me and my team actually been talking about it, how the experience would be going out there, just wanting to be out there period because the fan base is so crazy. It’s even crazier than it is here.

“They stadiums be packed — 70,000, 80,000 people. Here you get some crazy packed fights, but it’s not getting up there. You get 20 [thousand], 30,000 over here. But going out there, it wouldn’t only be big for me, but I’ll say probably big for boxing to showcase my talents in a country where they love boxing. And I feel like I do have those talents, to where if I go out there, they’ll love me.”