WBC and IBF light heavyweight world champion Artur Beterbiev of Russia is expecting the contract for his fight with WBO beltholder Joe Smith to be signed in the coming days.

World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman was notified that their highly anticipated light heavyweight unification is scheduled for September 18 in New York.

Beterbiev, who wants to unify the entire weight class, is very motivated to capture another world title.

"The fight with Smith on September 18 has not yet been confirmed. I'm waiting for the contract. I think that issue will be resolved in the coming days. Of course I would like to have this fight, because after all Smith has the belt. In general, I don't care who I go up against. The main thing is to win the belt," said Beterbiev to Ildar Satdinov.

Smith looked less than spectacular in his last fight back in April, when he secured a twelve round majority decision over Maxim Vlasov to capture the WBO title.

Beterbiev is certainly not overlooking Smith's abilities in the ring.

"I don't have the thought process that Smith has no chance in a fight with me. Any boxer has a chance of winning. Smith is not an ordinary fighter, he is experienced, he boxed with strong opponents, showed good boxing," Beterbiev said.

For his part, Beterbiev saw action back in March. At the Ice Palace in Moscow, he put away German contender Adam Dienes in the tenth round of action.

Beterbiev has a perfect record with 16 wins and all of them have come inside the distance. On the account of Smith, there are 27 wins (21 of them by way of knockout) with three defeats.