The Set-Up
Bill "Stoker" Thompson (Robert Ryan) is a 35-year-old has-been boxer about to take on an opponent at the fictional Paradise City Arena. His wife, Julie (Audrey Totter), fears that this fight may be his last and wants him to forfeit the match. Tiny (George Tobias), Stoker's manager, is sure he will continue to lose fights, so he takes money for a "dive" from a mobster, but is so certain of Stoker's failure that he does not inform the boxer of the set-up.
The beginning of the film shows Stoker and Julie in their room at the Hotel Cozy, passionately debating whether he should participate in the fight. Julie tells him that she has a headache and won't attend the match. Stoker claims the $500 prize could allow them to buy a cigar stand or invest in another boxer, Tony Martinez, and start a new life. Julie says she cares more about his well-being than money, but Stoker responds: "If you're a fighter, you gotta fight."
After Stoker departs for the arena, Julie continues to struggle with her fear and desire to support him, but ultimately ends up not using her ticket to the event and instead roams the streets surrounding the arena.
At the beginning of the fourth and last round of the vicious match with the much younger and heavily favored Tiger Nelson (Hal Fieberling), Stoker learns about the fix. Even though he is told that Little Boy (Alan Baxter), a feared gangster, is behind the set-up, he refuses to give up the fight.
Stoker wins the vocal support of blood-thirsty fans who had at first rooted against him and ends up defeating his opponent. He pays for his decision with a beating in an alley outside the arena from Little Boy, Tiger Nelson, and their cronies. The group irreparably damages Stoker's hand with a smash from a brick.
The story closes with Julie meeting Stoker as he staggers out of the alley and collapses into her arms. "I won tonight," he tells her. "Yes," she answers. "You won tonight. We both won tonight."
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