By Elisinio Castillo

Only a few small items remain before a fight between Luis Ortiz (25-0, 22 KO) and Alexander Ustinov (33-1, 24 KO) is finalized for the 17th of September as part of HBO Pay-Per-View undercard to Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez vs. Liam Smith, which likely takes place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The winner will be close to facing the upcoming fight  between WBA 'super' champion Tyson Fury and challenger Wladimir Klitschko, which takes place on October 29th in Manchester.

The fight was originally scheduled to take place in June, but complications in the negotiations pushed the contest back, for the better, as now it will be showcased as part of a major pay-per-view event.

"Only a few small things are missing, but we are already looking at fighting on this event as a reality,'' said Jay Jimenez, manager of Ortiz, to George Ebro. "Our plan is that Luis defends his crown in September and return to the ring before the end of 2016 in December - either against another major opponent or one of the world champions."

Ortiz won his belt on the 17th of October 2015 by with a three round knockout of Argentine Matias Vidondo and later made a successful defense to beat Bryant Jennings by way of TKO in the seventh round in December. His last appearance was on March 5, when he picked up another knockout win in the seventh aagainst veteran Tony Thompson.

Meanwhile, Ustinov has not lost since 2013 when he gave in to Kubrat Pulev. He is ranked third under the WBA and all three of his fights in 2015 ended by knockout.

He promises to make a statement on the show and send a message to the other heavyweights.

"Ustinov will be another one of my victims on my path to the heavyweight linear title," said Ortiz.

"Thanks to my team and Golden Boy for going up the hill for me, and very soon there will come a time where there will be nowhere to hide [for the top names at heavyweight].''