By Carlos Irusta

JAVIER ALBERTO MAMANI, named “The Cobra”, will fight this Friday night at Uniprix Stadium of Montreal, Canada. His opponent will be Joachim Alcine, born in Haiti, raised at Montreal, and undefeated in 26 fights with 18 wins by KO. Currently Alcine is the NABA, WBC International and WBA Fedecentro champion in the junior middleweight division. The fight with Mamani will be an elimination bout for the WBA world title.

Mamani, at 24, has a record of 28-4-1, 16KOs. Last December he fought at Fiji Islands, kayoing in one Zulfikar Joy Ali, for the WBA Fedelatin junior middleweight belt and the PABA championship in the same division. Mamani admits he likes boxing, but sometimes he prefers taekwondo.

“My father, my mother, four of my five sisters and even me, all of us have practiced taekwondo in any moment of our lives. I begun at 5, and I was 5 Dan, as my mother”, he told Eduardo Bejuk, journalist of “Olé” and “Ring Side magazine” of Argentina.

He has a tiny of lack of an “assassin's instinct” for to be a real boxer; with a very good left jab and a powerful right hand, he knows how to box, and how to walk in the ring, but sometimes he loses his focus. Last May 21, 2005, he was defeating on points Charlie Jose Navarro at Caseros, but just only in the last round the decided to KO his opponent. And he did it. Why not in the early rounds? “It’s my style, that’s all”, he said.

Of course, Mamani will need all of his temper fighting a good boxer as Alcine is, specially thinking in his visitor condition. “I will do my best, simply because this can be my last chance, and I know what important is a victory for my in this moment of my career. During the beginning, in my first pro fights, I fought as a middleweight. I lost on points against Felix Sturm at Hannover, and Mariano Carrera at Buenos Aires. But I am really a junior middleweight boxer. I have been training for this fight for two months. And I know, better than ever, that this night could be my night. And I will fight for that…”