(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Yannis Mihanos: On May 2nd, the biggest fight in the recent years will take place between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s a fight between the two most influential fighters for at least the last 20 years: Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr.

Two different worlds will collide. One world is full of exposure, glamor and controversy, while the other world is full of humility, humanity and dignity.

If you look at some of Mayweather’s videos, you’ll noticed that he’s surrounded by large groups of celebrities, models and by his huge security staff. Floyd choses this larger than life profile and seems to be enjoying every minute of it, but as everything is so extravagant; he is always at the eye of the cyclone. What goes around comes around as they say.

Mayweather’s every move is watched and frequently criticized. His excess bragging about his achievements, such as when he calls himself the best of all time. His spending on gifts, bets, and women. These things distract and annoy the true boxing fans.

Mayweather’s world is definitely a world of image; some that know him better believe that all this is made up just for the sake of showbiz. It’s possible, but who knows?

To some, Floyd is also perceived as the villain that people love to hate him.

To play Mayweather’s advocate for a tiny bit, I will say that top fighters like him tend to get a lot of pressure from boxing fans. Mayweather is obviously no exception in that department. The pressure comes mainly from those who want or cannot be like him. There’s a lot of jealousy from fans.

In contrast, Pacquiao is a lot simpler than Mayweather. He’s more humble. Pacquiao’s world is indeed a complete different one; everywhere he goes is surrounded by friends and admirers. For the normal people he is not “Pacquiao,” but rather “Manny.” The support Pacquiao receives from friends and strangers is overwhelming.
In the eyes of the public, Pacquiao is perceived as the hero; his humble character in and out of the ring along with his straight into action fight style has made him the people’s favorite.

In his home country Philippines, Pacquiao is already an icon. On the days that Pacquiao fights it’s like a bank holiday. His influence there is huge, but he’s also a huge star worldwide.

A quote from the Spiderman movies that I often adopt, matches well here: with great power comes great responsibility.

Pacquiao tries to be as much responsible as possible because today more people count on him than ever and see him as a role model. Of course, he is not infallible; no one really is. Pacquiao also has made mistakes before. To my knowledge, never before a boxer out of the United States has received so much overwhelming support worldwide as Pacquiao. And I believe in the future even after he is retired he will continue to inspire and motivate others.

So as you may see dear reader from this brief presentation, here we have two completely different worlds.

On May 2nd, these two worlds will collide and in the end only the stronger one will prevail.