By Rick Reeno

The interest is there. The fighters want it. But a unification bout between welterweights Paul Williams and Joshua Clottey is not getting any closer to becoming a reality. One thing is for sure, the fight will not happen on November 29, the scheduled HBO date for Williams. Williams would love to have that fight in November, as would Clottey, but it won't happen. The root of problem is the available funds from HBO [for the November show].

When HBO is unwilling to raise the budget for any particular event, the promoter(s) are more or less forced to find the best possible opponent with whatever amount of money made available in the pot. Unfortunatley, the secured opponent is not always someone who the public is willing to watch, but usually the guy who is willing to take a risk for short-money, with the hope of pulling out a televised win that changes the direction of his career.

Vincent Scolpino, manager of Clottey, would tell BoxingScene.com on Tuesday that he's hoping the fight can happen in the early part of 2009. Top Rank's Bob Arum recently made it known that he wants to focus on putting together a unification fight between Clottey and Williams for next year. Williams' promoter Dan Goossen has not heard from anyone with respect to a Clottey unification, so far.