LAS VEGAS ? David Rodela is an affable guy with an intense desire to provide for his family and a keen sense of the best way to do that.
His job is to get beaten up for a living.
He?s a sparring partner, one of the world?s least glamorous jobs and one with a short shelf life. For the better part of the last decade, however, Rodela has eagerly slipped on a headgear, pulled on his gloves and traded punches with some of the world?s elite boxers.
Most were bigger, faster or stronger than he. Frequently, they were all three simultaneously.
?Hey,? he says, proudly, ?I?ve been in there with the best: Victor Ortiz, Zab Judah, Ricky Hatton, Juan Lazcano, Joel Casamayor, Amir Khan, Antonio Margarito. A lot of great guys.?
Then, Rodela chuckles, realizing he?s left off a significant name off his list of employers.
?And then, there is this guy,? Rodela said, referring to Manny Pacquiao, boxing?s reigning pound-for-pound champion. ?He?s different than all of them.?
Rodela, 25, has worked for Pacquiao since 2004, when Rodela was an amateur and happened to wander into the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., where Pacquiao trains under the tutelage of Freddie Roach.
In those seven years, he?s endured about as much abuse ? black eyes, contusions, bloody noses, broken bones, sore muscles, you name it ? as a crash-test dummy.
