There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow,

between science and superstition,

and it lies between the pit of man's fears

and the summit of his knowledge.

This is the dimension of imagination.

It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

The... If we look back at cinema history, there is a great tradition of stories about boxes.

A lot of them actually focus on the fighters who never quite make it.

They give a lot to the sport, a lot of blood and sweat, but if they don't get to where they

want to be, which is pretty much the top of their game, the sport doesn't really give them

anything back. So this was't really give them anything back.

So this was very fertile ground for Rod Serling with his talent for finding poetry in things or situations.

Now Sailing knew the sport intimately because when he joined the US Army he took it up and

had an undefeated run of 17 fights that ended when they brought in a pro boxer to his 18th fight.

The fighter broke Rod Sailing's nose and after that he decided to hang up his gloves.

But he was still a fan of the sport and he once said that a good fighter is a piece of art.

So it's no surprise that it's informed his own art ever since.

One of his breakthrough pieces of television before the Twilight Zone was Requiem for a heavyweight for the TV show Playhouse 90.

This was a story that featured Jack Palance as an over-the-hill washed-up fighter.

So it is this kind of end of fighter's careers that many writers seem to latch onto and find fascinating.

But Rudsailing also said, it's the contradiction inherent in the sport that I find fascinating.

When you speak to ex-fighters, you find out they're a breed of soft spoken gentle men they expend so much violence

...