By Luke Furman

As previously reported on BoxingScene.com, the light heavyweight showdown between Adonis Stevenson and Eleider Alvarez is in serious negotiations, but the contest may very well get pushed back to January 2018.

Their mutual promoter, Yvon Michel of GYM, is having a tough time matching up a date and venue that works for Showtime.

Alvarez has been the mandatory challenger, for nearly two years, to Stevenson's WBC light heavyweight title. The only thing left to do is to find a date that works for American television.

Stevenson (29-1, 24 KOs) and Alvarez (23-0, 11 KOs), who are both advised by Al Haymon, are very eager to get in the ring with each other and appear willing to wait as long as the deal gets finalized.

Michel explains that Showtime wants to televise the fight on December 9 or 16 - but there are issues - because several of the target venues in Canada are already occupied on those dates by other events. And some of the other venues are either too small or not suitable - in terms of technology - to handle a Showtime televised event.

"My recommendation will be to present the event at the end of January, the 20th or the 27th. Both boxers are ready to wait for the time it will take," Michel said to RDS.

Michel also threw water on the rumors of Stevenson side-stepping Alvarez to face Badou Jack.

Very recently, Jack vacated his WBA "regular" title - because he was ordered to make a mandatory defense against Dmitry Bivol. According to Jack, he dropped to the title in order to focus on a much bigger opportunity. Many felt that opportunity was a fight with Stevenson.

Michel says there is no truth to the claims of a Stevenson-Jack fight being negotiated. He says the only way that the WBC would even approve that fight, is if Jack held a world title and then a unification would trump a mandatory defense.

"A fight against Jack can only happen if there is a unification. In boxing, things can always change quickly, but the mandate I have is to organize a fight between Stevenson and Alvarez. There was never any question of Alvarez leaving his position [as Stevenson's next opponent]," Michel said.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.