Champ w/ most disappointing 2021?

Don't get me wrong - I would have much preferred that Fury vs. Joshua gone ahead like planned, and was quite vocal about my annoyance that Wilder and his team cockblocked it from happening. I didn't think a trilogy fight was necessary either, as I saw Fury already having beaten him twice and won the overwhelming majority of rounds between them in the first two.

Having said that, fighting and stopping him one more time has erased any doubt and firmly cemented him as the greater fighter, which can only be good for his stock heading into whatever greener pastures. It wasn't the ideal year for him (that would have been getting to AJ before Usyk did) but the bar here isn't "did they have the best year possible" - just "was it a disappointment". Pretty good may be worse than great, but it ain't terrible.

 

Kind of the antithesis of this?

Joseph Pedroza "Jo-Jo" Díaz, Jr.

Yep, even with a breaking-even record on the year 1-1-1, fighting thrice and victorious just the once, this little funfact cannot be denied:

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...and not only did he face three consensus top-teb opponents, he fought on highly competitive terms with them. Now, I'm not going to blow smoke up Jo-Jo's ass and put too fine a point in it by saying "and he could've gotten the nod in all three, too!" - because that simply isn't the case. I thought all three results were correct, in fact. I had him drawing with Shavkatdzhon Shokirovich Rakhimov, beating Javier Francisco Fortuna by 114-113, and losing to Devin Miles Haney by 116-112. Still, that is three close competitive contests with three top ten entities. That's as much as you can ask anyone in this sport for, and the opposite of a disappointing year. It should in fact set the bar and put all other contenders to literal, abject, sheepishly-avoiding-eye-contact with-the-mirror, shame.

Of course we can still - rightfully - give him stick for nonsense like this:

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...ld-knock-isaac-cruz-out.678855/#post-21441287

...but you can't take away his willingness to face tough opposition and give them a hard night's work regardless of the verdict.

 

"Teb"? Top-teb?? Autocorrect, you're drunk.