Based on the short story "The Ring with the Velvet Ropes" by Edward D. Hoch. This story was first published in the Robert L. Fish anthology With Malice Toward All (1968).

Host: Good evening. I might offer this small admonishment if you happen to be a purist in your judgment of art. These are not your ordinary canvases. You don't find Monet in a mausoleum or a van Gogh in a graveyard. This item here, commentative on what A.J. Liebling referred to as "the sweet science," obviously having something to do with the manly art of self-defense: boxing. But if the Marquis of Queensbury mayhem doesn't particularly turn you on, don't turn this off. This painting tells the story infinitely more intriguing than a couple of fast boys mixing it up. It's called The Ring with the Red Velvet Ropes, and it tells you the tale of precisely who is the real heavyweight boxing champion of the world -- and I think you'll be surprised. Surprise happens to be our stock-in-trade, because this is the Night Gallery.

Roderick Blanco: Bruises, breaks, blisters, and blood. Basics, let's deal with those, the prosaic approach.