Sparring Partners

Jesus seems to treat the Syrophoenician woman rather poorly in this text. What's going on?

Manny Pacquiao is a Filipino world champion professional boxer. Last spring, when preparing for his May 2 bout against the undefeated American fighter, Floyd Mayweather Jr., his trainer Freddie Roach spoke to a Manila reporter. Roach said that after seeing Pacquiao sparring with two separate training partners, he was going to up the ante and make his prized fighter work even more.

One of Pacquiao's sparring partners that day was Canada's Dierry Jean, who has a record of 28 wins. Trainer Roach said that in future training, he plans to have the Canadian fighter throw more right hands at Manny because "Mayweather throws a lot of right hands."

Roach said he instructed Manny's other sparring partner, Richard Sims, to run a bit more to cause Manny to chase him around the ring. "I ... want him to run a little bit like Mayweather does," said Roach.

In the world of professional boxing, there's nothing unusual about that report. It's standard practice to have fighters train against other boxers...