The Set-Up was the last film Wise made for RKO, and he named it his favorite of the pictures he directed for the studio, as well as one of his top ten of his career.

[4] Bill "Stoker" Thompson, a 35-year-old has-been boxer, is about to take on a 23-year old, mob-controlled, opponent called Tiger Nelson, at the Paradise City Arena.

At the beginning of the fourth round of what is a vicious match with the much younger and heavily favored Tiger Nelson, Stoker learns about the fix.

In an audio commentary accompanying the 2004 DVD release of the film, Robert Wise attributes the change in the protagonist's race to the fact that RKO had no star black actors under contract.

March later commented in an Ebony interview, saying: Robert Ryan, who was cast as Stoker Thompson, had boxing experience from his time at Dartmouth College, where he was heavyweight champion for four consecutive years.

"[6] Dore Schary, the uncredited executive producer who launched the project at RKO before his 1948 move to MGM,[1] is credited with endowing the film with a real-time narrative structure, three years before the device was used in High Noon.

[1] The passage of time is shown throughout the film: Before The Set-Up, Richard Goldstone's production credits had been limited to six Our Gang comedy shorts.

[1] The fight scene, which features an exchange of blows between Stoker and his opponent that is very close to the original poem,[1] was choreographed by former professional boxer Johnny Indrisano.

[4] Wise used three cameras to capture the action: one focused on the ring in its entirety, one on the fighters and a third hand-held device to catch details such as a glove connecting with a body.

[7] In early May, a judge recommended that specific scenes be removed and that the resulting film should then be reviewed by the court to confirm that Champion was not significantly weakened by the deleted sequences.

Critic Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times wrote:This is no ordinary feature dealing with winner take all.