LAS VEGAS – Nearly two decades ago, Evander Holyfield was in an eerily similar position as the one Manny Pacquiao finds himself in now.

Holyfield was a great, highly accomplished fighter, but on Nov. 9, 1996, he was facing Mike Tyson, a man at the top of the sport and one many experts felt was invincible at that stage.

A battalion of reporters were asked for their prediction on the outcome. All but one chose Tyson. Bookmakers set the betting line at 25-1.

View photos Evander Holyfield knows what it's like to have odds stacked against him. (Getty) More

The Nevada Athletic Commission had ordered Holyfield to undergo an exhaustive series of physical examinations, just to be sure he was fine.

Through it all, Holyfield exuded confidence. He politely answered the doubters and smiled at the numerous outrageous questions.

On Saturday, Pacquiao will meet Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the very ring inside the MGM Grand Garden where Holyfield came through as a 25-1 underdog and stopped Tyson in the 11th round to become the heavyweight champion of the world.

Pacquiao is now widely regarded as the second-best fighter in the world, but Mayweather is an almost-unanimous pick as the best. A poll of current and former boxing journalists came out so overwhelmingly in Mayweather's favor that the public relations team decided not to release it.

Like Holyfield so many years before him, Pacquiao appears totally at peace with himself. He told a gathering of about 1,000 fans who came to cheer him at a pep rally at Mandalay Bay not to worry.

"Relax," he said. "I'm going to win this fight."

Holyfield can relate to Pacquiao's confidence and said he suspects it comes from his past. Holyfield credited his mother, Annie Laura Holyfield, with making him the self-assured man he became.

"I was the youngest of nine in my family, and, man, I got ridiculed a lot," said Holyfield, the former undisputed heavyweight champion who has written several insightful pieces for The Players' Tribune. "I lived in the ghetto, but I wasn't of the ghetto. My mama had these principles, these biblical principles, about how we were supposed to live.

"People would dump trash right by the dumpster instead of putting it in. So she had us out, picking up the trash and making the area clean. I got ridiculed and all, but my mama taught me to believe in myself and to do the right thing and if I was doing the right thing, don't worry nothing about what no one else thinks."

Holyfield said he idolized former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, and baseball icon Jackie Robinson. His mother would show him examples of African-Americans who had risen from difficult circumstances to get an education and become successful.

View photos Evander Holyfield got the better of Mike Tyson twice in the late '90s. (Getty) More

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