This is good information on roman gladiators!

Notes for I-search [Lat.,=swordsmen], in ancient Rome, class of professional fighters, who performed for exhibition. Gladiatorial combats usually took place in amphitheaters. They probably were introduced from Etruria and originally were funeral games. The gladiators were paired off to fight each other, usually to the number of about 100 couples, although in the imperial shows there were sometimes as many as 5,000 pairs. There were various types of gladiators, armed and armored differently. Thus a heavily …

…would probably have been a slave or criminal. I would most likely be fighting for my life against a bear, or another human, with nothing to lose. I doubt I would want to fight too hard though. The life of a slave was about as being a criminal. You had no rights, and no power. I would probably have preferred my flesh being ripped apart than working until my death for a pretentious rich person.