Canelo Alvarez vs Paul Williams: Fight Done For September 15

Canelo Alvarez will be facing Paul Williams on September 15 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions saying the fight is "done," and that both Showtime and HBO will have the opportunity to make offers for the pay-per-view event.

Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO) is coming off of a destruction of veteran Shane Mosley on May 5, while Williams (41-2, 27 KO) last fought on February 18, easily routing Nobuhiro Ishida on Showtime.

Unlike past situations where we've heard that both networks could bid on a PPV or other major fight, Showtime may actually have a serious chance at landing the fight this time.

Though Canelo is a star fighter for the HBO boxing brand, Golden Boy has ties at Showtime with Stephen Espinoza now running their sports programming, and Williams is managed by Al Haymon, who has developed a very, very close relationship with Showtime and Espinoza this year, with the majority of his fighters having featured on their network rather than HBO in 2012.

It would be a surprise if HBO let a Canelo fight slip away, particularly after investing so much time into airing worse matchups than this one, but Showtime could see this as a big opportunity and a good reason to invest serious money.

As I said before, I like this fight a lot. Canelo could be tested stylistically by Williams, and given the styles of the two fighters, I doubt we get less than a good action fight, and we could possibly get something great, or at least very exciting. There's a chance that Williams' length and workrate really give Alvarez fits, but Williams' porous defense could also allow the young Mexican superstar openings to land hard shots in counter, something that has troubled Williams in the past, of course.