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Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the guys betting on the fights, who have a strong incentive to get people to throw the fights, sabotage the guys on the other team, arrange for the favorite to be subtly poisoned the night before, or a dozen dozen other possibilities.
You could start the party as all working for one stable of gladiators, and then have them interact with others -- come up with 2-3 other groups to be rivals of the PCs. It's not just about winning the fights, but can you win them fast enough, or showily enough, to earn enough money to keep your patron solvent and the crowds interested? You might want to look at the performance combat rules in Ultimate Combat for some ideas.
Then you can extend a bit and have the PCs do some low-life intrigue situations -- can they sneak into someone else's place and find proof that he's behind the plague of loose bowels that struck them all the night before a big fight? Can they make friends with the cooks who deliver the food, or wheedle extra favors from the keeper of the armory (like maybe figuring out what weapons the other stable has been practicing with before the big slice-and-dice free-for-all next week?) What if one of their friends is in danger -- you can have a whole bunch of city adventures going on eventually, if anyone's interested.
Do they want to escape from the arena? Do they want to win enough money to buy out their contracts and return home? Do they want to set up as masters of their own stable? (A perfect use for the Leadership feat...) Do they set up and lead their own rebellion against the evil empire -- or do they fail and get turned into garden torches for the Emperor's birthday party?
Then there's the old:
1) Another slave gives them info about a secret plot somewhere - what will they do about it?
2) Replay the expendables or the dirty dozen
3) have someone break them out
Almost any movie will do
If the core of the campaign is going to be the fighting, you might consider creating ways to add higher stakes to the combats.Perhaps it wasn't just the PCs that were kidnapped, and the lives of their loved ones are on the line, dependent on how well they fight.
Spend some time really fleshing out a few of the villainous NPCs. Part of the reason Gladiator was so captivating was because of Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus. In Spartacus: Blood and Sand, the rivalry between Spartacus and Crixus drives a large part of the plot.
Giving the PCs a good reason to be fighting will add another layer to the combats, elevating them above simple exercises in hit point trading.
What level will they be starting at?
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Gladiator with Russell Crowe is a good one for the ideas on ramping up combat.
Also start them in a small arena and have them move up to the Big Leagues arena in a major city by them getting bought by a passing noble of said city because they perform so well....
You need an underlying plot that is more than just "gain your freedom". Something like "uncover the people fixing fights" or "there is a plot against the Burgermeister" or "the arena is run by a thieves guild that sells some of it's fighters to the mages college for experiments and then brings back the modified fighters to be tested in the arena".
Just some stuff...top o' the head and all that...
What about a different twist on the "roman gladiator" thing. All I heard from the OP is that the necessity is they have to fight in an arena. Here are some setting changes that might evoke some thoughts:
1. Welcome to the pits of the underdark. The orcs of Vulggh have only one rule - survive. The greatest who survive these trials will be released into the labyrinthine underdark, there to find their way to the surface if they wish.
2. The outcasts were cursed, long ago, by a powerful demon. Now to appease their patron they must sacrifice souls. However, the canny demon didn't want to make it easy, so the sacrifices must know nothing of their own fate and must die in battle. The more the PCs win, the less their masters like it. However the outcasts can't just kill them...then they lose those souls.
3. These battles are part of a much larger entertainment: fey revels. A group of truly wicked and debauched fey have roamed the wilds for years, stealing mortals and inserting them into wild drinking, figting and truly frightening rites they consider "entertainments". Alongside the fighting you could have footraces along caltrop-infested tracks, dancing endurance contests with a Kyton-like fey, or gluttony challenges like the old show Fear Factor; it's not just about how much you eat and drink, but about HOW GROSS the food/drink is.
4. The first beast the party slays transforms into a child upon it's death. It turns out that the whole event is a moral test by the gods; if these mortals, after realizing their actions are destroying other mortals, somehow reject the paradigm and actively try to achieve some moral victory, then there is hope for the mortals after all. Otherwise, its time to ditch THIS blueprint like we did with the First World, and head back to the drawing board.
5. Arena, roman-style gladiators...AT SEA! They are locked on a MASSIVE galleon and their "arena" is the unique environment of the ship. You can then have the ship land on islands to provide different environments and have the buyers and sellers be pirates, sea-born monster NPCs and such.
6. For the lady's pleasure - you battle because some narcissistic queen of darkness wants the tournament champ to woo her. This is a fate worse than death but her spies are everywhere, so what do you do?
7. MORTALLLL KOMBATTTTT!!! The party represents the last hope of their respective races/lands/worlds. If they survive they save their people; if they fail...FINISH HIM! Best thing is, at some point they'll have to face one another if they don't find a way to tip the scales in their favor.
8. Just change the arena to a massive labrynth. Now the party is released from their cages, they fight things and all that...but they have no idea where they are, where the crowd noises are coming from or why this is all happening.
They get pulled into a Demi-Plane by a God/Lich/Etc to do battle in an Arena. Might even get some use out of the Mythic Rules if you wanted.