Disappointment has been sporadic in boxing this year – the sport is almost unrecognizable in this respect.

But there were a few disappointments. And the postponement of Saturday’s undisputed lightweight heavyweight championship fight between Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev may be at the top of that list.

However, there is probably one positive side to Beterbiev’s meniscus tear, at least for one particular segment of the boxing writing community. For those tasked with maintaining the pound-for-pound rankings, thanks to the Bivol-Beterbiev quarrel, Sophie’s painful Choice between three extraordinary fighters does not threaten to become even more of a torture between four extraordinary fighters.

If you can, think back to a simpler time: the first half of May. This was a time when P4P debate was all about splitting hairs Terence Crawford and Naoya Inoue.

Oleksandr Usyk then went on and beat Tyson Fury to become the undisputed heavyweight champion and made it a fight a three-headed monster worth pound for pound. How exactly do we choose between three undefeated boxers, each of whom has unified two weight classes and all of whom are still in great shape and recording career-best victories? There’s simply not much that separates Usyk from Crawford, Crawford from Inoue, or Inoue from Usyk.

And if Bivol had faced Beterbiev and beaten him unequivocally on June 1, and his resume already included a clear victory over then-P4P king Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, there would have been very little separating him from any of those three or.

Bivol’s place in the debate certainly depended largely on defeated Beterbiev. As noted two sentences earlier, it would have to be unambiguous. The controversial Beterbiev decision, while a great achievement in its own right considering no one has ever even gone the distance against the Montreal Russian, who is 20-0 with 20 knockouts, would not have moved Bivol beyond fourth place on many lists pounds for pound.

But there is a difference between a win like Usyk over Fury – fairly clear despite the split points, monumentally impressive but by no means dominant – and a win like Crawford over Errol Spence or Inoue over Stephen Fulton.

Any readers who question the idea that Bivol will enter the conversation for the top spot with a victory over Beterbiev will consider the possibility that he could do to Beterbiev what Crawford did to Spence. No, this would not be the most likely scenario; Bivol has not established himself as an elite fight finisher (he used to be 13-0 with 11 KOs, and now he is 22-0 with the same 11 KOs). But in a hypothetical world where he’s teaching a boxing master class and Beterbiev can’t do anything, and a tiring Beterbiev steps into a massive right hand, falls and goes out, it’s absolutely reasonable to put Bivol ahead of Usyk, Crawford and Inoue.

And honestly, if he does something similar to what Usyk did against Fury – overcome the difficulties, rally and get a deserved decision over Beterbiev, who himself may be better in terms of pound-for-pound against Fury, Spence or whoever , who did Inoue beat – then Bivol is still at the top of the P4P list. It’s just not that robust of a case.

But we won’t find out – at least not this weekend.

No matter what Bivol does against substitute opponent Malik Zinad, it won’t improve his rate pound-for-pound.

In fact, apart from the outsized salary Bivol is no doubt drawing from the Saudi sports laundry fire hose for this assignment, it’s not a win-win situation.

Bivol is listed in sportsbooks as a favorite in the -2500 to -3500 range. This means that even assuming the most player-friendly price, a player would have to risk $25 to win $1 on the Russian title list. If he wins in a fight priced and perceived as such, it simply won’t move the needle. This is especially true when it comes to distance, as Bivol’s past six years of no-knockout history suggest.

There is also the risk factor. Zinad, although he may have flaws and inexperience, is not without talent.

His record matches Bivol’s, 22-0, and his 16 KOs surpass Bivol’s 11, although the quality of his opponents may have something to do with that.

Born in Libya, 30 years elderly and in his ninth year as a professional, Zinad is trained by Buddy McGirt and is coming off a career-best win and a potentially beneficial 38-day break. He won’t lose his form after a majority victory in Sydney, Australia over Modern Zealand’s Jerome Pampellone as a 3-to-1 underdog.

It’s an old-school change, going from one fight to training for the next, and while it has potential downsides, in a fight where you’re seen as a hopeless prospect, an X-factor or two is welcome.

Pampellone, however, was undoubtedly Zinad’s best opponent to date – if you’ve heard of anyone else on his account, you’re spending way too much time watching boxing. Hell, if you’ve heard of Pampellone before these last few paragraphs and you’re not from Australia or Modern Zealand, you’ve been watching too much boxing.

Zinad is 6’1″ and can fight high with a long jab (like Bivol), but has a tendency to be aggressive – at least against a confined number of opponents; it is quite possible that he will be more cautious against Bivol. Nevertheless, he puts together his combinations impressively and may pose a greater threat to Bivol than the odds suggest. That said, he tends to stand flat on his feet, keeps his hands low and is sloppy, which is noticeable even to the untrained eye.

If he doesn’t manage to improve his technique a bit against Bivol, he will be “108” in “120-108” waiting for it to happen.

But what if the unthinkable happens? This is boxing. One punch can change a life. A defeat for a heavily favored fighter in such a fight would not be unprecedented.

The list of boxers who have been turned upside down by delayed substitutes is long. The most memorable include: Anthony Joshua losing his perfect record against Andy Ruiz; Barry McGuigan throws an all-time classic to Stevie Cruz; Lehlo Ledwaba, along with the rest of the boxing world, is learning just how risky Manny Pacquiao was; Pacquiao, on the other hand, performed poorly against Yordenis Ugas; Tim Witherspoon’s second heavyweight reign ended with three first-round knockdowns at the hands of James “Bonecrusher” Smith; Victor Ortiz breaks jaw by Josesito Lopez; and Carlos Cuadras inadvertently started Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez’s championship run.

That’s not to mention countless close calls against delayed replacements, such as Evander Holyfield barely outliving Bert Cooper and Lennox Lewis escaping thanks to cuts in the war with Vitali Klitschko.

A similar but related category is terrible tuning, in which Zinad is a seemingly superficial proposition standing between Bivol and the rescheduled clash with Beterbiev. Michael Bentt, who cost Tommy Morrison millions in the Lennox fight, will always be a prime example of this, but Zab Judah lost to Carlos Baldomir in a hard-fought fight before his showdown with Floyd Mayweather, and Erik Morales fell foul of Zahir Raheem as a starter before Pacquiao’s rematch would have been equally disastrous were it not for the boxing brokers who ignored these results and cashed in on the fights anyway.

It seems unlikely that Bivol will suffer such a fate, not because Zinad is so incapable, but rather because Bivol is as stable and reliable as possible. On the other hand, just three years ago, he lost just a round or two to the almost anonymous Craig Richards. So it’s not that the profession is impossible even for a cyborg like Bivol.

What it is impossible for him to secure a place in the top three in P4P on Saturday. The opportunity to crash this party, further complicate this puzzle and potentially cause the three-headed monster to grow a fourth head, will have to wait until Beterbiev’s knee heals.