It only seemed like yesterday that MaxBoxing.com editor Doug Fischer and I were loading up his wife's new VW on our way to Las Vegas to cover the junior lightweight unification tilt between Acelino Freitas and Joel Casamayor. Freitas would win a close decision to capture the WBA title along with defending his WBO belt.

Dougie and I would make nine such trips to Vegas -- ending with our early December trek to cover the double-disappointment that was Mayweather vs. Castillo/Klitschko vs. McCline -- covering over 5000 miles along the 10 Freeway to Interstate 15. Another year has passed and from up close and afar, we covered the game of boxing.

Time flies when you're having fun and it's true what they say: it's not the destination but the journey that you remember.

I'll never forget being in stunned silence in Miami, watching HBO and seeing Shane Mosley getting handled with ease by Vernon Forrest. I, like many others, believed that Mosley was on top of his game and amongst the finest fighters of this generation. Forrest has always been a solid pro, but who in the world would have ever thought he could defeat Mosley so decisively? It just goes to show you, nobody is invincible and no matter how good you may be, there's always someone out there with your number.

But that fight was just barely a blip on the radar screen that month to the general media -- which doesn't seem to pay any attention to just merely good fights -- as it was overshadowed by a pair of highly publicized press conference melees. Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson would scuffle in New York, injuring WBC dictator Jose Sulaiman (proving that there is a bright side to almost everything) and Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas would put on their own fireworks a few weeks later in Los Angeles. The De La Hoya-Vargas press conference had to be the most fun I've ever had at a press conference, the tension and animosity was palpable. And not just from the combatants themselves, who ended up shoving each other, but from the audience which was divided up between the two groups of partisans. It was a mixture of a gang fight and a pep rally.

In Texas, the normally mild mannered Marco Antonio Barrera would take a swing at Erik Morales. Predictably, all three episodes would garner more attention than 99-percent of the fights that happened inside the ring. But say what you will, especially in the case of Lewis-Tyson and De La Hoya-Vargas, it's hard to argue that it didn't help boost pay-per-view sales.

All three of these highly anticipated matches also had something in common: they all helped to make 2002 "the Year of the Postponement." What was supposed to be a tantalizing early schedule this past year instead became a series of frustrating starts and stops for the industry. Eventually, all three fights would take place but boxing never seemed to really build a strong momentum.

But as they say, stuff happens and in boxing, stuff always happens.

The year's most hyped event, turned out to be a modern day Ali-Holmes, when Lewis would toy with Tyson for the better part of eight rounds in Memphis, Tennessee. We didn't go down to cover that event -- I'd like to say because our moral dignity wouldn't allow us to cover such a farce, but it's really because our travel budget wouldn't allow it. But I had no problems paying for the pay-per-view (yes, I forked over my own money) and I enjoyed every single moment of that thrashing. It was worth every penny. Funny, but the Tyson fanatics don't email me as much anymore after June 8th.

The year's best event, was De La Hoya-Vargas, which I had dubbed 'the Mexican Super Bowl' and it was a great night of boxing and for boxing. It was one of those rare occasions when boxing was on the big stage and it shined. The action was heated and competitive and the ending was exciting and conclusive. It left people wanting to see more boxing.

But that's not all that took place in the squared circle.

Francisco Bojado, thought to be a future superstar, turned out to be more of a shooting star who burned out much too early with his own excess and would get upset by journeyman Juan Carlos Rubio in stunning fashion. But other prospects like Mohammed Abdullaev, Miguel Cotto and Rocky Juarez kept up their winning ways.

Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins would share an HBO card in February in hopes of making a rematch down the line. Unfortunately, it seems the closest we'll ever get to see them fight is arguing via satellite 1500 miles away from each other.

Hopkins' knockout win over Carl Daniels would be his first and only bout of 2002 in the ring. But outside of it, he would battle with former advisor Lou DiBella and his former trainer Bouie Fisher. It seems it has struck midnight for boxing's Cinderella story. It wasn't that long ago that he was dominating Felix Trinidad for the undisputed middleweight championship of the world.

Jones would have one more against Clinton Woods and then embark on a negotiation to face WBA heavyweight titlist John Ruiz for next March. It wasn't so much a negotiation but an odyssey that at times was a farce. As we speak, a press tour has been completed, tickets have gone on sale but there are still questions about Jones actually signing the contract.

Speaking of the aforementioned Trinidad, did anyone really think that when we all saw 'Tito' make his triumphant return against Haccine Cherifi in May in front of his countrymen that it would quite possibly be the last we saw of him? Or did anyone think that the rematch between Barrera and Morales could possibly become a boxing match that left more than a few fans bored and disappointed? The more you think you know, you find out you really don't know much at all.

David Tua had been thrown on the scrap heap after his loss to Chris Byrd in 2001. Well, after two big knockouts over Fres Oquendo and Michael Moorer, 'the Tuaman' is right in the thick of things in the heavyweight division. I guess that old saying about never counting out a heavyweight with a big punch is 1000-percent true. And speaking of players in the heavyweight division, Chris Byrd captured the IBF title when he out-boxed Evander Holyfield in December.

Some of you might puke at this notion but Byrd has to be considered one of the game's best heavyweights and is right in the thick of things himself.

Speaking of heavyweights, Joe Mesi proves once again that there will always be a place in this game for white heavyweights. Who knows just how much he can fight? But if his people were smart, they'd milk it for all it's worth in Buffalo.

We saw Zab Judah in his first fight back from his KO loss at the hands of Kostya Tszyu and we were left with more questions than answers after seeing him go 10 tentative rounds with Omar Weis. There were no questions about Hector Camacho Jr. after his bout with Weis several months earlier. In losing a ten rounder to the crafty and game Argentinean, it's clear as day, 'the Macho Man's' son just doesn't have it.

I got to see Floyd Mayweather Jr. up close and personal twice in his 24 rounds against the rugged Jose Luis Castillo. Mayweather would come away with two wins but make no doubt about it, his stock in 2002 dropped -- not to Enron levels, but they fell. What's even more troubling is that 'the Pretty Boy' seems to be falling into an abyss of personal and legal snafus that could derail his career. It's clear that this is not the same young man that burst onto the scene with his father by his side in 1998.

The great thing about this job is that you can always expect the unexpected. Such was the case when we headed out to Vegas in mid-May to cover, what we thought was going to be a pretty good jr. welterweight scrap between Kostya Tszyu and Ben Tackie at the Mandalay Bay. In front of a sparse crowd (and that's being veeery generous) Tszyu would methodically tame Tackie. It was effective but certainly not exciting in any way, shape or form.

After grabbing a bit to eat, Doug, Johnnie Whitehead (a regular contributor to the Ring and KO) and I would head down to the sports book to check out a replay of another jr. welterweight bout that had taken place 3000 miles away at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut between Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti. The result was already known and we had made sure that we were not going to find out that result before we viewed the fight. After all, what ruins the anticipation of watching a bout worse than having someone accidentally spill the beans?

Well, we were almost tripped up when ESPN's 'SportsCenter' actually showed highlights of the fight -- imagine that, and it wasn't a fight at a press conference -- and it nearly gave us a heart attack. All three of us did an about face to the huge screen at the sports book with our ears covered, afraid to even turn around and get a glimpse of the result. We all knew this had to be an all-timer, after all, 'SportsCenter' showed highlights of it. How many times does that happen?

As we sat down at our bar stools we were immediately transfixed on the action taking place. As the rounds passed, the congregation surrounding the bar would grow larger and louder as the rounds went on. In fact, it isn't too much of an exaggeration to say that there were more people there watching Gatti-Ward on that HBO feed than there were watching Tszyu perform that night at the actual venue. I guess this is what it must've been like in the old days when big fights were regularly broadcast on network TV, with big crowds gathered around the tube with a sense of community that somehow felt intimate.

It proved that if you put on a good fight, people will watch it. No, they may not be boxing fans everyday of the week, but I've noticed that when a fight breaks out, no matter where it is, people just don't walk past it -- they stop to take a look. And that's what seemed to happen with Ward-Gatti. On this night at least, boxing was the main event once again. Those who had the privilege of seeing it that night were left breathless -- and I'm only talking about the ones who watched it on television.

We came to see a great jr. welterweight fight that weekend and we accomplished our goal. So what if Doug and I had to travel over 500 miles to see something we would have watched in our living rooms? That's our job, that's what we do.

Besides, it beats getting real job. See ya next year.

MICKY

More than a few of you readers asked how in the world I didn't list Micky Ward's ballsy effort against Arturo Gatti in their rematch amongst the gutsiest in a losing effort ( the Jake LaMotta Award) and it's pretty simple.

I simply didn't think of either guy as a loser in either fight and it completely slipped my mind. So next year, I'm changing the award to the 'Jake LaMotta/Micky Ward Award'.

FINALLY

Happy New Years to everybody out there.