IBF world featherweight champion Lee Selby, who makes a fourth defence against Eduardo Ramirez at the Copper Box in London on Dec. 9, is looking forward to some highs in 2018 after some devastating lows this year.
A chance to impress on a big show against Argentina's Jonathan Barros in Las Vegas last January, was cancelled at less than a day's notice. The fight was rearranged in London on July 15, but four days previously Selby's mother Frankie suddenly died.
The Welshman, 30, courageously went through with the defence and sparkled in a unanimous points win.
Selby (25-1, 9 KOs) was then hit by another death in his family, while inside the ring he has yet to face the big name opponent he has craved since winning the belt against Evgeny Gradovich in May 2015.
"A better 2018 would be nice, but it's part of life," Selby told ESPN. "My mum died and then my granddad died a week or two later. They are challenges but you just have to get on with it."
Victory over Mexican Ramirez (20-0-3, 7 KOs) will set up a fight with bigger interest in the UK against England's Josh Warrington (26-0, 6 KOs), while Selby remains hopeful he can face Northern Ireland's former WBA titleholder Carl Frampton (24-1, 14 KOs) later in 2018.
"2018 could be my biggest year yet," said Selby, who has been preparing in Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands off the north-west coast of Africa.
"I have a high-profile fight with Josh Warrington, my mandatory, so get him sorted and maybe a fight with Frampton towards the end of the summer.
"And then if I can beat that pair then hopefully it will be one of the other world champions in America, that would be my ideal 2018.
"I just want the big fights. The Warrington fight will be a big one, me versus Frampton will be a big fight and then a unification. That will be the perfect year for me then."
Frampton is targeting a world title shot in 2018 after losing the WBA belt to Mexico's Leo Santa Cruz.
The Belfast boxer wants a third fight with Santa Cruz (34-1-1, 19 KOs), but Selby believes Frampton's best chance of a world title fight in his home city next year is against him.
"I can't see Santa Cruz coming to Belfast, no chance," Selby told ESPN. "Carl's best chance of a world title fight in Belfast is against me. The other world champions won't leave America to fight him. Top Rank won't allow [WBO titleholder] Oscar Valdez to go to Belfast either.
"But I've got no problem going to Belfast to fight, I would prefer it, because you feel like the underdog, the pressure will be on him."