Alvarez-Williams "done" for Sept. 15 at the MGM

WBC junior middleweight beltholder Saul "Canelo" Alvarez will defend his crown against southpaw former two-time welterweight titleholder Paul Williams on Sept. 15 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on a pay per view network to be determined, Golden Boy Promotions President, Oscar De La Hoya, informed RingTV.com.

De La Hoya said that Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer will begin negotiations with HBO and Showtime for a spot on either of the cabel giants for the clash between Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 knockouts) and Williams (41-2, 27 KOs).

"I'm doing Canelo versus Paul Williams, and that's confirmed for Sept. 15. I'm on a mission to put on a spectacular event from top to bottom, and it's all done, baby. Sept. 15, and it's a go. I don't say that it's a done deal until it's a signed deal," said De La Hoya.

"So it will be live from the MGM in Las Vegas. It has no network yet. That's going to be up to my man, Richard Schaefer. So I'm going to have my man, Richard Schaefer, now deal with HBO and Showtime to see what he can come up with. That's up to him to get the best deal."

Alvarez, who is only 21, is coming off a unanimous decision over former titleholder Sugar Shane Mosley on May 5.

"Canelo wants to keep fighting the best," said De La Hoya. "So this is David and Goliath, and, you know, my man, it's on."

Alvarez shares a victory over former welterweight beltholder Kermit Cintron with Williams.

"Since we've announced the fight with Alvarez and Williams, I've gotten a number of calls from boxing experts calling us crazy, asking, 'why would you put Canelo in with Williams?' They're saying, 'Paul Williams is going to win this fight,' and, 'he's too dangerous.' But that is what boxing is. You need to do the fights where you know that it will be exciting, and this will be an exciting fight," said Schaefer.

"You know that in this fight that there will be a knockout. That's what we like to do. I really don't like to do the, 'let's do this fight to get to that next fight' like some other promoters do. We don't like to dangle the cherry and say, 'before you get that, you need to eat your broccoli.' This is us going to the dessert fight away. One big fight after another."

Williams has split bouts with RING middleweight champ Sergio Martinez and former beltholder Carlos Quintana, and won a disputed majority decision over Erislandy Lara last year.

"Here you have Paul Williams, who is a very dangerous fighter who keeps coming, so it's going to be a dangerous fight," said De La Hoya.

"But I have all of the confidence in the world in Canelo that he will have another spectacular night against a very dangerous fighter in Paul Williams."

Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com