A rising heavyweight boxer, Machine Gun McGurk, must face down the most formidable fight of his life for the title of champion. McGurk has been "nursed" through his career by managers setting up fake fights he could easily win and looking for easy opponents, granting him an incredible yet largely unearned reputation. Now, he must up his game if he hopes to defeat the previous champion, Leo Robis, in the fight of his life. As the boxing match begins, McGurk appears clearly ahead; yet round after round, Robis continues to beat him, until McGurk is dizzy and disoriented from head trauma and swinging senselessly. After dragging the match out too long, Robis at last takes the K.O. Congratulated by a shocked audience, he retreats victorious to his dressing room amid a sea of reporters. Nobody expected Robis to win, but McGurk's manufactured reputation couldn't hold up to Robis's true skill. McGurk dizzily staggers out of the arena and leaves, carried by his managers, to join the ranks of the many boxers lingering on the edges of the sports world, made incapable of fighting by their repeated head traumas.