Paul Williams will keep his December 5 date on HBO. Williams' fight with middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik was called off for a second time yesterday. (Photo via assets.nydailynews.com)

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BoxingScene.com has learned that Paul Williams will be keeping the December 5 date on HBO, with an opponent and site to be announced soon. Rick Reeno reports:

After two withdrawals, [promoter Dan] Goossen and Team Williams are not willing to wait any longer. They are working fast to secure a site and a good opponent for December 5.

"We are going to put this behind us. We gave Kelly Pavlik and Top Rank every opportunity to make this fight a reality. We went through two cancelled dates and right now it's all about Paul Williams and focusing on bringing him back on December 5th," Goossen told BoxingScene.

"We'll try to get him a world title fight or have him defend his title [WBO interim-junior middleweight title]. Right now we are talking to a few sites. Paul is the star and the guy the fans love to see and we plan to bring him back on December 5th - no ifs, ands or buts."

Williams' manager/trainer, George Peterson, was quite blunt about the Pavlik situation:

"We are tired of this bulls**t. We know the deal here. He just needs to man up but we ain't fooling around with him no more. We ain't waiting around for him. [Paul] wasn't surprised. We've been through this thing before. We were expecting this. We know when someone doesn't want to fight us. We're going on. We're ain't waiting on him no more. I don't know who, but we are fighting somebody on December 5," Peterson said.

Staph infection isn't exactly easy to get rid of, but it's been a while and the last time we heard much about it, even Kelly Pavlik's own promoter wasn't making excuses for him. "He's missing appointments," was what Bob Arum told the world when they had to postpone the October 3 date, and now December 5 is off as well.

I don't see this fight ever happening, to be honest. I'm not sure Pavlik wants any part of Paul Williams, and it just feels like the more we get to know him, the less appealing he is overall. I've been a Pavlik fan as long as I've known who he was, since the first time I saw him fight, which was years ago. He's not the same guy he used to be. Some guys handle fame well, some don't. Pavlik appears firmly in the "don't" camp. You can disagree with me all you want on that point, it's just the way I see this situation.

Williams will not find a fight as big as Kelly Pavlik, because there simply isn't one out there, not at 160 or at 154, where he still holds an interim title belt. When we discussed the cancellation of the Pavlik-Williams fight yesterday, lots of names were thrown around in the comments.

Lou DiBella says that he'd be happy to get Sergio Martinez, another 154-pound titlist, in that December 5 slot. Martinez has been calling out everyone he can lately, and it'd be an interesting fight. As good as Williams is, a fellow tall southpaw could certainly give him a lot of trouble, and don't forget that Williams' only loss came to Carlos Quintana, a tricky lefty in his own right.

There's also Sergiy Dzinziruk, a promotional free agent who was in talks with Williams for an HBO fight before the Pavlik fight "came together"; Roman Karmazin is always out there and always willing to fight; Cory Spinks, like him or not, has never backed down from a challenge and has a title at 154.

If the scheduled Clottey-Quintana undercard fight stays on the bill, Lou DiBella could also try to get Kermit Cintron in there with Williams. Cintron fights on Saturday, but he shouldn't have much trouble with Juliano Ramos. DiBella is already involved in the promotion with Quintana, and there's a good chance Williams doesn't want to get ready for a southpaw like Sergio Martinez if he's been expecting a powerful, straightforward righty, which describes Pavlik and Cintron both.

We'll see how it works out, but there are some fine options out there.