Choose the word or set of words that best completes the following sentence.
After hearing that Mr. Garrett generally took a long time to grade papers, Ryan was astonished when __________.
the teacher let ungraded papers sit on his desk for days
it took over a month before he learned that he had received an A
the teacher's sister became very ill
he received his grade less than a day after turning in his final assignment
After years of __________, the aging boxer was finally dethroned by a young heavyweight from New York City.
underwhelming performance
winning about half of his matches
being vanquished in the early rounds
reigning as the undefeated national champion