Verb
(sports, theater, obsolete) To maintain order among spectators encircling participants in a prizefight or a performance and keep them from coming too near the participants.
Synonym: keep the ring
To be a spectator at a fight; (figuratively) to watch other people argue.
(chiefly Britain, idiomatic) To oversee a situation while attempting to remain uninvolved in it.
Police held the ring during the protests.
(sports) Of a prizefighter: to hold one's own during a fight; to continue winning a series of fights.
Source: en.wiktionary.org