James Scott: Prison Break

[BoztheMadman]

In the rich and tumultuous history of boxing, the story of James Scott, the light heavyweight contender of the 70's, is unique. He is the only man to have fought and had a successful career while sitting inside. Scott was a promising talent when he first went behind bars in 1968 for a robbery. He was released but then went back for good after he took part in an armed robbery which resulted in the killing of Everett Russ, a man involved in a drug-related scheme involving Scott. He was convicted to a lifetime behind bars, but he didn't let this stop him and after 3 years he went back to pro boxing. His career was however rather short and he retired after losing an important fight to Dwight Braxton, later Muhammad Qawi, who ironically was inprisoned in the same prison (Rahway) himself previously. However, he did previously impressively beat Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and a few other good contenders. The Mustafa Muhammad fight would prove to be the highlight of his career and life.

 

Born James O. Scott 17 October 1947 in Newark, New Jersey, he was one of 12 children born to Ursuleen and James Scott sr. When he was 13, he got arrested on the charge of truancy and thrown into the Jamesburg Home for Boys. For the next five years he bounced around different New Jersey juvenile reformatories. He was officially declared incorrigible and transferred to Trenton State Prison, where he crossed paths with another inmate called Al Dickens. Dickens was older and had done some boxing in the army previously and he got Scott into boxing. As he said "When I first saw Scotty, he was a tough punk running around busting heads with a pipe. But I got him into thinking about boxing instead." Under Dickens' tutelage, Scott discovered he had a talent for boxing and started sparring with another Trenton inmate, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Despite his inexperience, he managed to last three rounds with Carter, the only inmate to do so. Also encouraged by Carter as well as Dickens, he started training boxing seriously. He was released from Trenton in 1968, but soon found himself up to no good and was again busted on a robbery charge and facing a 13-17 year sentence. "I guess I wasn't listening too close when Dickens tried to teach me about life", he told Sports Illustrated later, "They let me out of prison and it didn't took long before I was back again. That's when I really took up boxing." He became so dominant in the New Jersey prison system that after he won the state prison championship, other challengers refused to fight him. He was released again in 1974 on a work-parole program. Before he got released, he had contacted several boxing promoters in order to start a professional career. Miami architect Murray Gabi offered him a managerial contract on behalf of the group of Miami Beach businessmen. Gaby also had the political connections to parole Scott out of New Jersey and enable him to move to Florida. Chris Dundee, the older brother of Angelo Dundee, was his promoter in the first 11 pro fights.

 

Scott's early record is a matter of debate. He boxed a four-round exhibition fight against then-undefeated pro called Joe Burns, in New Orleans in 1968, which has led many to wonder wether he was already boxing as a pro in the late 60's. It would not be so unlogical, since he was already past 20, but his incarceration not long after his first release in 1968 would have made it impossible for him to fight many fights. His official professional debut happened on 22 January 1974. The 6foot1 Scott weighed at 178 in the fight against undefeated 6foot4 John L. Johnson, who weighed 217! He came off the canvas in the first round to score a sixth round knockout, impressively. After eight consecutive wins, he fought to a draw with Dave Lee Royster. Two fights later, on 25 February 1975, Scott outpointed the undefeated top contender Jesse Burnett over 10 rounds, advancing to 10-0-1 with 5 kayos. He was now on the verge of a title shot against the WBC champion John Conteh of England when he went back to Newark and got into trouble again. Scott mett Everett Russ, who told him he knew a guy called Leo Skinner, who could get them some dope. They drove off to Skinner's apartment where Skinner told them that the drugs were in the building next door. In that adjoining building, the men held up the elevator for Yvonne Barrett who, it turned out, lived in the apartment where they were supposed to go for drugs. Reluctant to take so many people there, Skinner stopped the elevator on the eight floor. It was then that one of Scott's companions, William Spinks, pulled out a gun and ordered Skinner and Barrett out. Scott also went out. Everett Russ went outside to wait in their car with the other man of Scott's party. Meanwhile, Spinks handed Scott the gun who then proceeded to hit Skinner on the head with it. He then ordered Skinner to disrobe, while Scott went and robbed the Barrett apartment, taking 283$ and glassine bags with white powder in them. At 1.30 o'clock that morning, Russ was pushed out from a blue-door Sedan which they were driving, dead from gunshot wounds. A passing motorist saw this and wrote down the license plate number, then called the cops who identified the car belonging to Scott. Scott himself said he lent his car to Spinks and had nothing to do with the crimes and that his accomplice instead was a man that looked a lot like him, providing the man's name also. Leo Skinner himself stated that the man Scott named as Black Jack did look like Scott but that he was smaller and had a different hairstyle. He identified his attacker as James Scott.

 

And so, it was back inside, this time for good. Even though he was not convicted of murder due to jury not being able to decide, he was now incarcerated for 30 to 40 years, which for him was like a life sentence. He was incarcerated at Rahway State Prison after first being admitted in Trenton. It was at Rahway that a superintendent saw Scott's potential as a boxer and the progress he had made there with his boxing program. He then decided to help Scott resume his professional career. And so, James Scott became the only professional boxer to fight behind bars. His first fight at Rahway took place on 24 May 1978, two years after he was incarcerated. He beat Diego Robertson by a second round knockout. He fought again on 9 September and knocked out Fred Brown in four rounds. And then, on 24 October, he was given a fight against the top ranked contender of the WBA, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, who was still named Eddie Gregory then. Gregory dismissed Scott as a serious contender, saying he would carry him for 11 rounds and then knock him out in the 12th, as the fight was scheduled for that many rounds. However, to the surprise of many, including the HBO crew, Scott took charge from the start and pounded Gregory into defeat, winning clearly on points and giving Gregory an ugly lump below his left eye. Harold Lederman was one of the judges then and gave Scott 9 rounds. In 2012, he said that he was the best light heavyweight he had ever seen until then. "On that day, I thought James Scott was the greatest light heavyweight I ever saw in my life. That's how great he was. On that one day when he beat Gregory, he was the best light heavyweight I ever saw. I never saw a performance like that — anywhere. I don't think Bob Foster was as good as that. I don't think Archie Moore was that good. He was prepared like I never saw in my life." Jimmy DiPiano, father and manager of then-WBC champion Mike Rossman, said that it would take awful lot of money for him to let his son fight Scott. It was a happening you only see in movies, where the underdog prisoner took on the burgeoning contender with a promising future and owned him. Gregory aka Muhammad was otherwise a very clever boxer who also could hit, but he was completely thrown off his game and only managed to win a couple rounds, when Scott seemed to take a break.

 

There was a massive media coverage of Scott after that fight, naturally and he received a lot of fan letters of support. In 1979, he first stopped Richie Kates in 10 rounds and made Bunny Johnson retire after 7, strengthening his ranking and claim as a world title challenger. He then beat Jerry Celestine, the future Matthew Saad Muhammad-challenger and the multiple world title challenger Yaqui Lopez, both by a unanimous decision. Scott's promoter Murad Muhammad asked that the Lopez fight be a fight for the vacant WBA title, but WBA refused since Scott was a prisoner and thought it would be a bad example for the sport to let a jailbird fight for the world championship. They also meant fighting in prison put his opponents at a disadvantage. On 25 May 1980, Scott suffered his first loss to Jerry Martin, a hard-hitting contender from Antigua and Barbuda, who knocked him down twice and took home a unanimous decision. Scott still managed to win 4 rounds on two of the judges scorecards, in a 10-round bout. Martin would then go on to fight Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, ironically, who had won the WBA title from Marvin Johnson and get stopped in 10 rounds. In early 1981, Scott was retried for the murder of Everett Russ and found guilty, sentenced to a life in prison on 20 March. He returned to the ring on 10 August that year and stopped Dave Lee Royster in 7 rounds. The long absence from the ring showed and his reflexes looked slowed down, as well as his legs, but his punches hadn't lost their steam and his body blows weakened Royster, finally sending him down in the seventh with a right and a left hook to the chin. He then battered Royster until the ref stopped it. It would be his final victory, for in his last fight on 5 September, less than a month after that, he would lose to Dwight Braxton, himself a former Rahway-resident. Braxton was dominant, but Scott still won a few rounds and lost on points after 10 rounds. He ended his career with a record of 19 wins, 11 by knockout, 2 losses and 1 draw.

 

James Scott was paroled from prison in 2005 at the age of 58, after serving almost 30 years of his life sentence. In 2012, he was inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame. As of 2014, he was suffering from dementia and residing in a New Jersey nursing home. He is aged 69 now. As epilogue, what can we say? Wasted talent, wasted life. A cautionary tale for any aspiring young boxer and any other boxer whose career is still fresh. Don't get mixed up in crime. It seems his life was just doomed to be wasted away on crime. Shame he wasn't able to take the advice of his friend Al Dickens and build a good life and a good career. For if he had been able, no doubt he would have been one of the greats. After all this gloom, lets finish with a positive picture of a smiling James Scott.

 

/attachment.php?attachmentid=4186&d=1459002661