When Andy Ganigan retired from a championship pro boxing career, there was Jesus Salud waiting in the wings.

And when Salud hung up his gloves, there was, as if on cue, Brian Viloria, as the parade of champions hardly missed a beat.

But as the 37-year-old Viloria ponders whether to call it a career, there is …

Well, it is anybody’s guess who the next world champion from Hawaii might be — or when — in an age where boxing has taken a backseat to MMA.

Viloria has been the latest in a long line of world champions, heir to a lineage going back to Dado Marino and Carl “Bobo” Olson, fighters who got their starts in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, when boxing was in its heyday here.

If Saturday’s 12-round unanimous decision loss to Artem Dalakian for the World Boxing Association flyweight title was, indeed, his last fight, then Viloria will leave a gap much bigger than his 5-foot, 4-inch; 112-pound frame.

He will be missed not only for his successes in the ring — four pro world titles and a 38-6 (23 KOs) record, 1999 world amateur title and 2000 Olympic appearance — but for the humble, gentlemanly way he carried himself throughout.

In the lead-up to Saturday’s attempt at a fifth world title, Viloria suggested that it could well be his last fight, if he lost.

Viloria hasn’t said much publicly since the loss, but Gary Gittelsohn, his manager of 18 years, said in a text, “In the coming weeks we’ll put our heads together and make decisions in the calm of objective analysis.”

Gittelsohn said, “It is not sensible to make immediate decisions about the future. Brian deserves time to rest and be with his family following a gallant, brave effort.”

Viloria would not be the first — or even the millionth — fighter to struggle with a decision to separate himself from boxing after having invested more than 30 years.

A path that has taken him around the world and made him a celebrated figure in two countries began at age 6 at the Waipahu Recreation Center gym under the eye of Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame coach Al Silva, who also tutored Ganigan and Salud, among others.

Since then, Viloria has fought as a collegian (Northern Michigan), world champion amateur and pro with nearly 300 fights, 46 of them over 345 rounds as a pro, and the rest in a heralded amateur career that took him to the Sydney Olympics.

When Viloria turned pro in 2001 it wasn’t with the goal of just winning a title, but doing it in a couple of weight divisions.

Coming from anybody else it might have seemed an audacious target. But not with the résumé Viloria had assembled.

He held the World Boxing Council light flyweight title from 2005 until 2007 and the International Boxing Federation light fly crown from 2009 to 2010. Viloria then won the World Boxing Organization flyweight title in 2011 before adding the WBA Super flyweight crown in 2012.

But he lost to Juan Francisco Estrada on a split decision in 2013 and dropped subsequent title bouts to Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez on a ninth-round TKO at Madison Square Garden in 2015 and then the 16-0 Dalakian.

“I feel proud and privileged to be associated with a man of Brian’s talent, character and accomplishment,” Gittelsohn said in a text. “He’s a credit to the sport and I have the deepest admiration for him.”

If this is truly the end, then Viloria can go out knowing that, for 31 years, he has fought the good fight while carrying high the banner for a distinguished line of Hawaii champions.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.