Photo: Amanda Westcott/Showtime

The IBF will order junior middleweight titleholder Jermall Charlo to start negotiating with mandatory challenger Julian Williams for a fight later this summer, IBF president Daryl Peoples told RingTV.com on Tuesday. Peoples said the IBF was planning on notifying Charlo on Tuesday he has 90 days from his bout with Austin Trout on May 21 to stage the match with Williams.

Per IBF rules, if the boxers are unable to come to an agreement within the 30-day negotiating period, a purse bid will be ordered. The minimum bid allowed for a junior middleweight bout involving a champion and a No. 1 contender is $100,000. “The bout needs to take place within 90 days of the fight with Trout,” Peoples said in a phone interview of Charlo-Williams.

Despite the news, Stephen “Breadman” Edwards, who trains and manages Williams, put the odds at 50/50 that a fight between Charlo and Williams (22-0-1, 14 knockouts) will actually happen. It’s not beyond a reasonable doubt that Charlo could vacate the title rather than face the 26-year-old Williams, insists Edwards.

“I’m confident that we’re going to fight for a title,” Edwards told RingTV.com on Tuesday night. “As far as what Jermall is going to do — because they can’t make him fight– he can always just vacate. I’m confident the IBF will allow us to fight for a title. And I’m confident that we’ll fight for a title within the next three months. But I’m still 50/50 on whether we’ll fight Jermall Charlo because one minute he sounds like he wants the fight and the next minute he talks about moving to 160 and wanting to fight Canelo (Alvarez). So I’m not so sure that he actually wants to fight us.”

Charlo (24-0, 18 KOs) was allowed to face former titleholder Trout on May 21 in Las Vegas rather than face his mandatory, Williams. Charlo won a unanimous decision against the tougher-than-expected Trout in his second title defense. Edwards thinks that Charlo is reluctant to face Philly’s Williams because he represents his stiffest test to date.

“I don’t think he’s scared of Julian,” Edwards said. “But I do think that he knows it’s a very, very tough fight and with them struggling to make weight and having to take a fight in his heart that he knows he can lose — I don’t know. One thing I do know is that Julian Williams is all-in. He’s always felt confident that he can beat Jermall. And now he can prove it. Jermall is going to have to prove to him inside the ring that he’s the better man.”

Williams suggested in an earlier press release on Tuesday that his fight with Charlo was being targeted for Sept. as the co-feature to a “big” card. Edwards was coy about disclosing any details on the main event. Showtime has a Sept. 10 date penciled in but has yet to book a venue or any bouts. Edwards wouldn’t have any issue fighting in Sept.

“Money talks,” Edwards said. “If the 90-day time period has to be extended slightly for it to get on a bigger show, I’m not going to be adversarial against that. But if Julian has to wait anytime past September, then I’m going to have to do what I have to do as far as filing a complaint or whatever for my fighter — because that means he’s being denied his title shot.”

Mitch Abramson is a former reporter for the New York Daily News and can be reached on Twitter at: @Mabramson13.