By Piotr Momot

On Friday November 27th, an official IBF Welterweight Title eliminator will be staged in Elk, Poland, with Rafal "Braveheart" Jackiewicz facing the toughest test of his professional career. The 32-year-old Polish number one welterweight will take on Delvin Rodriguez from the Dominican Republic. Jackiewicz has been waiting for this opportunity his whole life and promises a career highlight win.

"My will to win this fight will be my advantage. I really want to win this because it is only one step away from title shot. His defence is not the best in the world, his chin is not granit and his footwork is pretty bad. I will take advantage on all of those things. My footwork will cause him many problems. I plan to pressure him from the very first round. Believe me, I am going to win this fight" - said Jackiewicz.

Altough, experienced Pole is full of confidence, he is not underestimating his opponent.

"At the begining I saw one of his fights and he did not impress me. His stance looks weird but I have started to watch more tapes with him and I quick found out he is an excellent fighter. Without any doubt, he is the best guy I have ever faced but if he boxes me the way he fought his last three fights, it will be easy work for me. He is much taller than me, he can fight on the inside and outside, he got good combinations, his uppercuts are beautiful. He is very dangerous but I know how to beat him" - said former European and Polish welterweight champion.

Winning the European championship at 147-pounds was the biggest victory of his career. Coming into the bout as the heavy underdog, Jackiewicz dominated Jackson Bonsu (#10 rated welterweight by The Ring) and made some room for his name in crowded welterweight weight class. Right after he was announced as the new European champion, he took the microphone from the announcer, invited his girlfriend to the ring and proposed to her on national television. Jackiewicz was full of happiness back than but it was only seven years ago when he was on his way to another world.

"It was June 2002, my son's first birthday. I was at the party with my friends at the local club when some guys started to fight each other. One of them stabbed me with a knife straight to the heart. The guy was trying to escape, so I started to chase him. Unfortunetly the bleeding was really bad and I fell down on the ground unconscious outside the club. My friends called for an ambulance immediatly." - said Jackiewicz. When he woke up, the doctors did not have good news for him.

"They said I was about 2-3 minutes from passing away. My right ventricle and pericardium got hurt. If my left ventricle was hurt, I would not make it. Doctors said I should never return to the sport of boxing".

It was harder blow than any Jackiewicz has ever recieved in the ring. He did not know what to do. All he was doing whole life was fighting. The Polish warrior did not follow the doctor's advise and started training again. Eight months later he returned to the ring but lost three bouts in a row. Now with a journeyman status he forgot about titles and fought only for the money. Jackiewicz was going to different countries, fighting against home favourites and lost some very controversial decisions. Fortunetly, his promoter Andrew Wasilewski never lost a believe in him and started to rebuild his career in Poland. Jackiewicz was not facing top level oposition but gained some confidence and his position in rankings was growing. He won 16 bouts in a row when he decided to challenge European champion Jackson Bonsu. Jackiewicz dominated Belgian rival and defended his European crown two times against undefeated opponents with records combined of 50-0-1. Now he is fighting in title eliminator to made his dream of being world champion come true. Victory will be sweet, but he already won the most important fight in his life against opponent much more dangerous than any human being.

Things you may not know about Rafal Jackiewicz:

- He has never been knocked out and been down only once in his career against Mircea Lurci (13-13-2)

- Since the year 2000, he's had 53 different cars.

- He used to had trouble making the 147 pounds limit in previous years. Now he is walking around around the welterweight limit all year long, because in January he made a bet with fellow Polish fighters like Krzysztof Wlodarczyk, Andrew Wawrzyk and Pawel Kolodziej - that he will not weigh more than 160 pounds for next 12 months. The bet is worth about $20,000 US dollars.