RIP James Scott

[wouter]

Scott passed away last Tuesday at the age of 70.

http://obits.nj.com/obituaries/starledg ... =188981991

[bennie]

Scott made it to No.2 in the WBA light-heavyweight rankings before the WBA bottled it and stripped him of his rating.

[Chuck1052]

James Scott was a capable fighter with a unique story. RIP.....

- Chuck Johnston

[ron4972]

Aside from that one funeral home notice, there's no mention of Scott's passing in the news. I find that unusual.

[SenorPipino]

This is the first I heard of his passing.

I know that Scott suffered from dementia for quite a few years, possibly boxing related.

Quite talented. You can argue forever whether a prisoner was deserving of all those high profile televised bouts in Rahway, but he was one of the best light heavyweights in the world for several years.

Toll the 10 count for another of boxing's fallen warriors, James Scott.

[Caractacus]

[oogiebe]

I had forgotten all about Scott. I remember now...RIP.

[elmersalsa]

R.I.P to a champion without a crown. I remember him in the late 70s and early 80s. I remember when the TV networks used to televise his fights in jail. I have never seen nothing like it. You had to be a tough SOB to fight him inside that environment. Plus, he was very, very good. He was world championship material in my view. I don't know why he didn't get a title shot.

Someone gotta make a movie about him. I think it is a great life story.

[SenorPipino]

Great stuff. Thanks.

I always remember Scott's coming out party where he dominated top contender and future world champion Eddie Gregory (later Mustafa Muhammad) in a stunner.

Soundly beating quality fighters like Yaqui Lopez, Richie Kates, Jesse Burnett and Jerry Celestine proved that Scott wasn't just hype and an interesting story.

He could really fight.

[bollocks]

Pretty good fighter but a horrendous human being

[scorpio83]

RIP James Scott and his biggest win of his career was against the future WBA Light Heavyweight Champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad (Eddie Gregory).

[bennie]

James Scott made it to No. 2 in the WBA light-heavyweight rankings while in jail. That is the unique, almost absurd tale of a man who was a victim of his own success because the WBA always held back from ranking Scott at the No. 1 mandatory position and ultimately stripped him of his rating altogether when the notion of a serving prisoner fighting for and potentially winning a world title became all too real. (The WBC refused to rank Scott.)
Scott is the only man ever to fight professionally in jail. An unbeaten pro with a big win over Jesse Burnett, he was convicted of armed robbery in his home city of Newark in New Jersey in 1975 and sent to Trenton State Prison before eventually winding up in the notorious Rahway State Prison where a boxing programme allowed him to continue his pro career (with a few strings pulled) and such a perverse setting attracted national television coverage and in turn many of the biggest boxing names in the light-heavyweight division and the division was stacked with big names in the 1970s.
Scott punched out a unanimous 12-round decision over brash New Yorker Eddie Gregory (later Mustafa Muhammad) in Rahway in 1978, working non-stop against a man ranked No. 1 in the world by the WBA and who had spent a little holiday in Rahway himself for “beating up a few cops”. Scott's conditioning was phenomenal but then, he had nothing to do but train. Scott scored another huge win over two-time world title challenger Richie Kates, who was stopped in 10 rounds, and he also outlasted Britain's clever Bunny Johnson, pulled out by trainer George Francis at the end of the seventh, before Italian southpaw Ennio Cometti, badly cut, bailed out himself at the end of the fifth against a man who was now probably the most feared in boxing.
Perennial contenders “Yaqui” Lopez and Jerry Celestine both had guts and they made their way to Rahway and went 10 bruising rounds with the shaven-skulled Scott in 1979 to lose unanimous decisions (Lopez featured in a 14-round classic with Matthew Saad Muhammad just a few months later) but then came Philly's Jerry “The Bull” Martin, who took away Scott's unbeaten record and his aura of invincibility in a real shocker in Rahway in May 1980, dropping him twice early on and surviving a late rally to take a unanimous decision. Scott, now pushing 33, came back with a stoppage win over Dave Lee Royster (who had held him to a draw on the outside) but the stocky and effective Dwight Braxton (later Muhammad Qawi) knew all about Scott from his own days in Rahway and Scott knew all about him because he fought scared in their 10-rounder in September 1981, bouncing around the ring and rarely looking to outwork and outmuscle Braxton in his usual style. Braxton used his jab effectively and biffed away when he could to take a unanimous decision. He destroyed Saad Muhammad for the WBC light-heavyweight title just three months later
That was it for Scott. The boxing programme at Rahway State was cancelled and Scott, now a convicted murderer after he was retried for a killing linked to his original armed robbery, rotted there until he was paroled in 2005 at the age of 57. "Without question, Scott was at one point the best light-heavyweight in the world," says Harold Lederman, a judge for a few of Scott's fights. "He would've beaten anybody; he was long and lean, and he was a vicious body puncher. He'd hit so hard, you'd be in the audience and you'd say, 'Ouch!'"

[prewarboxing]

As usual, Bennie gives us one of his superb mini-biographies.

[bennie]

As usual, Bennie gives us one of his superb mini-biographies.

Cheers, mate. Scott was one of the most famous fighters in the world for a time. I remember ITV screening his big win over Gregory. He even made it on to the front cover of BN a few times.

[Noxy]

RIP James Scott. I remember him well

[bennie]

Scott passed away last Tuesday at the age of 70.

http://obits.nj.com/obituaries/starledg ... =188981991

Great spot, Wouter. There is absolutely nothing about Scott's death anywhere else on the net.

[ron4972]

I don't know why he didn't get a title shot.

As I recall, there were two issues. First, whether Scott would be granted permission to travel outside of jail in order to fight the champion. Second, whether the WBA would be willing to mandate that its world champ would have to travel into Rahway in order to fight Scott if that's what circumstances required.

In the end, the criminal courts -- either state or federal, I don't remember which -- refused to grant Scott permission to travel outside of the prison for any reason. Next, the WBA ruled that it was not willing to force its world champ to travel into Rahway to defend the belt. These two rulings led to Scott being dropped from the WBA ratings.

[Flump]

One question I have, what sort of purses was Scott getting, presumably he was getting paid and then having the money stashed away in a bank somewhere?

[ron4972]

One question I have, what sort of purses was Scott getting, presumably he was getting paid and then having the money stashed away in a bank somewhere?

This is what I dug up by doing some quick google searches.

For his February 1979 fight with Jerry Celestine, Scott was paid $7,000. The money was put into a trust fund pending his release. Incidentally, that match was scrapped and replaced with Scott vs. Richie Kates a month later. I imagine Scott's purse remained the same.
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/01/arch ... times.html

For his May 1980 bout against Jerry Martin, Scott split $105,000 in purse money with his opponent. No word on how the cash was split, or how Scott's share was handled.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 5393&hl=en

I didn't have time to look up more purse history for Scott.

[Flump]

One question I have, what sort of purses was Scott getting, presumably he was getting paid and then having the money stashed away in a bank somewhere?

This is what I dug up by doing some quick google searches.

For his February 1979 fight with Jerry Celestine, Scott was paid $7,000. The money was put into a trust fund pending his release. Incidentally, that match was scrapped and replaced with Scott vs. Richie Kates a month later. I imagine Scott's purse remained the same.
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/01/arch ... times.html

For his May 1980 bout against Jerry Martin, Scott split $105,000 in purse money with his opponent. No word on how the cash was split, or how Scott's share was handled.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid= ... 5393&hl=en

I didn't have time to look up more purse history for Scott.

Thanks Ron.

[SenorPipino]

Scott passed away last Tuesday at the age of 70.

http://obits.nj.com/obituaries/starledg ... =188981991

Great spot, Wouter. There is absolutely nothing about Scott's death anywhere else on the net.

Wiki now reports his passing but other then that (along with BoxRec) there are no news reports or articles recounting his life and death.

Strange. Back in the 80s he was quite famous even beyond boxing.

[Sidney Carton]

Jerry Martin beat the hell out of Scott.

Martin knocked Scott down with single right hands in both the first and second rounds.

[Nile4000]

RIP James. Real good fighter. But the main question is could he have beaten Saad Muhammad, Spinks, or Marvin Johnson in fights?

[SenorPipino]

RIP James. Real good fighter. But the main question is could he have beaten Saad Muhammad, Spinks, or Marvin Johnson in fights?

Well if Scott was good enough to beat Gregory (Mustafa Muhammad) Kates, Yaqui Lopez and Jesse Burnett, then you have to figure that the three fighters you mentioned would never have been a sure bet to beat him.

Personally, I think the best James Scott handles Johnson.

[scorpio83]

RIP James. Real good fighter. But the main question is could he have beaten Saad Muhammad, Spinks, or Marvin Johnson in fights?

Good question. In my opinion, Scott may fall short against Marvin Johnson, get out-slug by Matthew Saad Muhammad and beaten handily by Michael Spinks. If Scott were to challenge all 3 that you mentioned, then they would defend their title against Scott in prison. RIP James Scott anyway.