Monk despairs of being able to keep his job when the state mandates a grueling new fitness test for working police consultants. However, in the middle of his trouble, he becomes entangled in the case of heavyweight Ray Regis, who nearly lost his life to an explosive punching bag. With each other to rely on, Monk and Regis just might mutually emerge as champions in their respective challenges.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- All for Nothing: Louie and Ray bet against Ray winning and threw the fight so that Louie could afford to send his ill daughter, Rebecca, to Geneva for experimental treatments. Given that both the match and her death were five years ago, the treatments apparently didn't help much.
- Alliterative Name: The client of the week is called Ray Regis.
- Asshole Victim: It's safe to say an assassin like Charles Bach really deserved to get shot dead.
- Booby Trap: Charles Bach's first attempt to kill Ray involved planting a bomb inside a punching bag Ray uses to train. It fails because Eddie, a homeless friend of Ray's, takes a practice shot and sets the bomb off.
- The Boxing Episode: The episode features Monk trying to protect boxer Ray Regis from an unknown assassin. In the process, he has to hang around a lot of gyms and even steps in as Regis' corner man.
- Character Tics: Louie Flynn, Ray Regis's trainer, compulsively tucks his crucifix necklace under his shirt when he lies. This leads Monk to realize a potential motive for someone to try assassinating Regis.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- The stolen paintings Stottlemeyer briefly mentions in the beginning turn out to be the real motive for someone putting a hit on Ray Regis.
- The deodorant commercial Regis is filming is supposed to begin airing by the first of September, and the person who put out the hit said he wanted Regis dead by the end of the month. This clues Monk in that somebody wanted Regis dead to stop the commercial from airing, not because of the fight.
- Chekhov's Skill: That physical regiment Ray helped Monk get through becomes useful in the climax when Monk had to hurry to a skybox where the assassin is getting ready to fire at Ray.
- Coincidental Dodge: An attempt to kill Ray Regis with a bomb stuffed in a punching bag fails because Louie's "good luck charm" ended up taking a swing at the bag in question while Regis was standing safely out of the blast radius. Ray feels horrible about the guy getting killed in his place.
- Continuity Nod:
- Monk mentions that Kevin Dorfman, his neighbor who appears in multiple episodes, gave him his jogging outfit.
- When Stottlemeyer and Disher are talking to Frankie Marino, you can see a MagnaPod box in the back of the truck Frankie's guys are loading up, a reference to the computer mogul in "Mr. Monk and the Naked Man".
- Crisis Makes Perfect: Monk comes in more than twenty minutes late during his training session with Regis, but the boxer assures him that he'll do it when the time comes. During the bout, Monk realizes where the killer is, and manages to run up to the top floor and jump him within 90 seconds.
- Delivery Guy Infiltration: Charles 'the Iceman' Bach blends in with a group of McSherry's Catering Service employees delivering food to smuggle a custom sniper rifle into the Bay Arena.
- Found the Killer, Lost the Murderer: Monk stops hitman Charles "The Iceman" Bach's assassination attempt on Ray Regis, but Stottlemeyer and Disher are forced to shoot Bach, meaning Stottlemeyer comments after the fact, "The sad thing is that we'll never know who hired him," only for Monk to immediately look at a stick of deodorant, remember a couple things that have happened over the last week, and conclude who hired the Iceman.
- Innocent Bystander: Eddie, the man who was killed by what was supposed to kill Ray.
- "I Know What We Can Do" Cut: Regis enthusiastically hugs Monk after he says he doesn't intend to report Regis and his trainer for throwing the fight, gushing that Monk only has to ask if he can do anything to repay him. Cut to Regis arriving at Monk's apartment at 5:00 to help him train for the fitness exam.
- Not Me This Time: Mobster Frankie Marino claims that Bach is no longer on his payroll and he doesn't want Regis dead, in part because he still managed to make money off the fight Regis threw.
- Nudity Equals Honesty: Well, stripping down to the underwear means honesty, in this case. Stottlemeyer and Randy visit Frankie Marino, a mobster who used to hire The Iceman to see if he knows anything. Marino asks if the two are wired. Randy proves he isn't by opening his shirt and pulling down his pants. When Frankie asks Stottlemeyer if he's wired and he responds "no", Frankie takes him at his word.Randy: Why did I just get undressed?
Stottlemeyer: I don't know, Randy. Everybody in the room is wondering the same thing. - Outliving One's Offspring: Louie's daughter died 5 years ago; he is still alive and active.
- Platonic Declaration of Love: When Louie ribs him about slacking off, Regis quips back that he loves Louie too.
- Product Placement: During the scenes at the boxing gym, Ray Regis is wearing an Everlast hoodie when being interviewed by Stottlemeyer and Disher after the bombing, and the bomb itself is in an Everlast punching bag. This is justified because Everlast is one of the biggest makers of boxing equipment in the United States.
- Throwing the Fight: Heavyweight boxer Ray Regis took a dive during the previous title fight in 2003 to raise enough money to pay for experimental operations on his trainer Louie Flynn's daughter.
