If ever you were looking for a ringsider who has watched Las Vegas change of the past ten-plus years, Chris Cozzone could very well be your man. The Chicago native is also sharp with the pen, serving as a photo journalist for Fightnews.com since 2000 and is a regular at every Vegas fight, be it a huge event or a local club show.
Cozzone spent some time out in New York chronicling street scenes, prisons, and everything in between for several years before his interest in photography lead him out to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he covered the local scene religiously while spending a lot of his time in the Vegas area.
<--- Massive slideshow: In-depth images as Chris Cozzone captures Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather, Juan Manuel Marquez, Yoriorkis Gamboa, Nonito Donaire, Antonio Margarito, and several other stars
Reflecting on the Vegas fight scene around the turn of the century, Cozzone admits that it was a different landscape.
“Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales were the top two names,” Cozzone said. “Lennox Lewis was the top heavyweight and people were still somewhat interested in heavyweights at the time. I think boxing was a little more popular because it’s always been gauged by the heavyweight division. But Prince Hamed was big, the featherweights were big. Just like the welterweights are now with Pacquiao.”
I asked Cozzone just how far along his skills where back then and he offered up a candid response. He pointed out that he had several years under his belt but that boxing was a completely different world in which he had to adjust to.
“As a photographer I had, at that point, still been shooting for ten or more years, but not particularly in boxing,” said Cozzone. “Boxing was still something I did on and off for a couple of years. So I was still perfecting boxing, for sure. And really, I’ve always been a boxing fan, but the more you learn about boxing, the more you watch boxing, the more you shoot boxing, the better you are going to be as a photographer.
“You can be the greatest photographer but if you’ve never shot boxing before, you probably aren’t going to pull off the perfect shot unless you’re luck. You’ve got to know something about boxing, you’ve got to watch the boxers, their styles, and anticipate punches. That’s what I think Nonito Donaire makes a decent photographer, because he’s got all that already, all he had to learn was how to operate a camera and how to perfect that.”
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Despite slow and trying times in the city, Las Vegas is still one of, if not the hottest spot to stage a huge event these days. Cozzone expressed disappointment in the fact that not as many hard core fans flock to the bigger cards in Las Vegas and that there isn’t a great wealth of local talent in the area. Still, Cozzone admits ‘There’s nothing like a huge fight on HBO or pay-per-view’ when it’s popping off in Vegas.
Earlier this month was saw this year’s biggest show take place at the MGM Grand when Manny Pacquiao successfully defended his WBO welterweight crown against a very passive Shane Mosley. Outside of a third-round knockdown by the Filipino icon, the fight was void of any real action or intrigue, leaving many unfulfilled.
But that hardly takes away from everything Pacquiao has accomplished in his career, be it the multiple titles he has collected in a record-setting eight weight classes or the status as the sport’s top dog which he feverishly fought to attain. Cozzone was there for Pacquiao’s American invasion and remembers being instantly taken back.
“The first fight of shot of his was his first U.S. fight, when he fought Lehlo Ledwaba,” Cozzone reminisced when discussing their June 2001 super bantamweight title fight. “It was on the undercard of Oscar De La Hoya-Javier Castillejo. He made quite an impression, because Ledwaba, at the time, was a monster and he was knocking people out. But Pacquiao just clobbered him.”
Despite scoring the scintillating victory over South Africa’s Ledwaba, Pacquiao was still new to American fight fans at the time. In a three-fight string he burst out even more, stopping Marco Antonio Barrera in San Antonio in November of 2003, battling Juan Manuel Marquez to a heated draw half a year later and fighting a courageous battle with Erik Morales in March of 2005, with a 4th round TKO over Fahsan 3K Battery nestled in between.
But for as much of himself as he showed us with those performances, the Morales fight was a humbling one, as Pacquiao would end up dropping a close but clear decision after being caught off guard by Morales’ aggression. It was until Pacquiao redeemed himself of that defeat almost a year later at the Thomas & Mack Center, says Cozzone, that he really stamped himself as a true Vegas attraction.
“I don’t think it was until he beat Morales, when he won the rematch,” Cozzone confirmed. “I don’t really think he was expected to win. He wasn’t expected to beat Marquez and he had a draw with him. It was after he fought Barrera that he was known and they still thought that he wasn’t going to be a superstar. Nobody thought he would go that far. But after he beat Morales he was the man. That’s when he became a big Vegas name and a big name in boxing.”
Pacquiao and Marquez would tangle again in March of 2008, with Pacquiao winning an electrifying split-decision after dropping his Mexico City foe in the third round and digging down deep to hold off a mid-round rally as he finished strong. Of all the people who have faced Pacquiao in recent years it is Marquez who has given him the most problems and the two are set to meet again this coming November 12th at the MGM Grand.
