By Jim Dower: The hard-hitting lightweight Denis Shafikov (38-3-1, 20 KOs) will reportedly be fighting next month against journeyman Rene Alvarado (27-8, 19 KOs) in a fight at super featherweight on December 9th on the undercard of the Orlando Salido vs. Miguel Roman card at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
HBO Boxing will be televising the Salido vs. Roman card. Shafikov-Alvarado won’t be televised on the main portion of the HBO card. They’ll be fighting on HBO Latino.
It’s too bad Salido can’t fight Shafikov instead of Miguel Roman, since that would seem like a far better fight for the boxing fans. Roman is a decent fighter, but he’s more journeyman level than a guy that will really give Salido a test. Shafikov would be a hard fight for Salido, and he would have to fight hard to win that one.
The 32-year-old Shafikov is coming off of a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to IBF World lightweight champion Robert Easter Jr. earlier this year on June 30 at the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio. That defeat snapped a 2-fight winning streak for Shafikov, who had looked great in beating Richard Commey and Jamel Herring in back to back fights.
In the last 3 years, Shafikov has fought for world titles on 3 occasions, and come up short each time in defeats to Miguel Vazquez, Rances Barthelemy and Easter Jr. Shafikov was competitive in the first 2 fights, but he was totally outclassed in his loss to Easter Jr.
Alvarado, 28, has some problems since 2014, losing to Rocky Juarez, Andrew Cancio Joseph Diaz, Manuel Avila, Eric Hunter and Yuriorkis Gamboa. Those are all good fighters, but Alvarado doesn’t seem capable of fighting at their level. The only thing that Alvarado has going for him in the Shafikov fight is his youth. The Nicaraguan Alvarado will be coming into the fight 4 years younger than Shafikov. However, that doesn’t equate to ring wear, as Alvarado has a lot of miles on him from hard fights during his 9-year pro career.
In other fights on the Salido-Roman card on December 9, super featherweight Tevin Farmer will face Kenichi Ogawa for the vacant IBF World featherweight title. Also on the card is former super featherweight world champion Francisco Vargas fighting Stephen Smith. This is a very good card. I don’t know if you can call the Shafikov vs. Alvarado fight a good one, but it’s at least a slightly entertaining match-up on paper if nothing else.
We’ll need to see if Shafikov is impacted by having to drop down from the 135-pound division to fight Alvarado at 130. Losing that weight could hurt Shafikov’s performance, as he’s a big lightweight.