By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Likeable David “Dangerous” Rodela, a former sparring partner of Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao both at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles and at the Rex “Wakee” Salud Gym in Cebu City has scored the biggest win of his career at the Desert Diamond Casino in Tucson, Arizona.
The lightweight from Oxnard , California won an eight round split decision over former world champion, veteran Kevin Kelley .
Two of the three judges had the 26 year old Rodela, a lanky fighter with fast hands the winner by scores of 78-74 and 77-75 while the third judge scored the fight for Kelley by a margin of 78-74.
With the win Rodela who helped Pacquiao prepare for several of his fights including the rematch with Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera when Pacquiao trained much of the time in Cebu , improved to 11-1-3 with 6 knockouts while Kelley, nicknamed “Flushing Flash” dropped to 60-9-2 with 39 knockouts.
Kelley, a 5’7” southpaw was coming off a ten round unanimous decision over Jaime Palma last July 8. He had fought some of the greats in his prime including Erik “El Terrible” Morales to whom he lost by a 7th round TKO in a battle for the WBC featherweight interim title on September 2, 2000.
He also lost to Prince Naseem Hamed and more recently on November 11, 2006 lost a majority decision to another ageing fighter, former world champion Manuel “Mantecas” Medina who lost his title in Tokyo to one of the Philippines greats, two-division world champion Luisito Espinosa.
In the past Rodela has demonstrated a rare and truly commendable dimension to his soft-spoken, concerned nature when he was involved in what was termed a "Fight for the Missing" with similar public-service-oriented individuals.
