Former heavyweight boxing champion Patrick "Lights" Leary struggles to find his identity after retiring from the sport. He also wonders how he is going to support his medical resident wife Theresa, and their three daughters. The series premiere begins five years after Leary's retirement following a controversial split-decision loss to Richard "Death Row" Reynolds. The Learys' once charmed life is on shaky ground; the IRS is determined to take away their mansion, and Patrick's brother/manager Johnny wants him to make a comeback, despite him showing signs of pugilistic dementia.

When Leary is threatened with criminal charges, he must do the bidding of bookmaker Hal Brennan to make them go away. Lights is also being coy with his suspicious wife Theresa, and Mike Fumosa, a pesky reporter—both having heard rumors that he will return to the ring to fight Reynolds. Meanwhile, his daughter Daniella finds out about her father's diagnosis and confronts him.

Johnny gets himself in a life-threatening situation when he is unable to pay his gambling debt after betting on Omar's fight. So Lights has to put himself on the line to bail him out by fighting an MMA fighter named Dokaj in order to make the money and save his brother. Meanwhile, Theresa offers to donate $50,000 to help rebuild a clinic that her church is involved with in Haiti, but she soon discovers that the family's $12 million from Lights' fighting career is all gone.

Lights tries to help a hard-up former champ, Jerry "The Rainmaker" Raynes, but the punchy boxer ends up helping him. Meanwhile, Councilman Randall Hess is brought in for questioning in a prostitution scandal and is all of a sudden "talkative" with the FBI. Hess threatens Lights' future by trying to get him to confess his involvement in having the councilman take a bribe when he delivered a cake box full of cash from Brennan. However, Lights gets arrested for bribing a public official and has to find a way out without jeopardizing his family and his upcoming fight.

After all the trials and tribulations that led up to the championship fight, Lights goes to "war" when he finally faces off with "Death Row" Reynolds for the heavyweight title. Before the big fight, Hal Brennan gathers all the former champs that have been burned by Barry Word and starts a war against him by starting a new boxing alliance called United Boxers. But in order for Lights to be a part of it, he suggests a 10 percent cut for a health fund to help all the boxers in need of medical care. Meanwhile, Word has a pre-fight talk with Lights, and it is not very inspiring the night before the fight. Theresa has her own talk with Reynold's wife, Jennifer. As soon as the third round begins, Lights manages to K.O. Reynolds and wins back his title, but suffers a severe concussion. After the fight Theresa makes a shocking discovery about Lights: she goes to his side and watches in horror as he groggily asks her "Who won?".