An over-the-hill heavyweight boxer refuses to give up, although though his wife begs him to stop, he's too old to be in the ring . . . and his manager sells him out in The Set-Up. From the moment that Stoker Thompson (Robert Ryan) steps into the ring, with the crowd roaring its blood lust to see him bloodied and beaten, Thompson knows this fight is going to go badly. He doesn't know his manager has taken a bribe for him to lose the fight: The manager is so sure Thompson will lose, that he's going to keep the whole bribe when Thompson is knocked out. But when the aging fighter discovers the fix, he brutally pummels his opponent ... without realizing that by winning the bout he's crossing the mob--or that there will be terrible consequences for his victory in the ring.