James Scott: Fighting Behind Bars

James Scott: Fighting Behind Bars

There are endless ‘what if’ stories in boxing. There are numerous stories of fighters turning around their lives from a criminal past. Boxing has many redemption stories, the sport has undoubtedly saved many.

But it can’t save everyone, and maybe one of the biggest what could have been stories is that of the former light-heavyweight contender James Scott.

Scott could have been a world champion, and that is no false claim, even at a time when his division was at its strongest in its long history. Make no mistake, Scott was some talent.

Born in a Newark ghetto, a life of crime was perhaps inevitable, he admitted he was attracted by the gang way of life. The numerous stints in prison that followed stopped the American from realising his potential as a prizefighter.

Scott first encountered prison life when he was just 13 and in 1965, aged just 18, he was in state prison, but his new home had a boxing program. Scott showed potential, but after his release in 1968, he couldn’t stay out of trouble. A further conviction, this time for robbery and this time he found himself in Rahway State Prison in New Jersey.

But Scott continued to box whilst inside, a state prison champion, so feared few would challenge him. When he was released in 1974, Scott turned professional. An unbeaten start to his career, 11 fights, and only a draw spoilt that early record. Only low blows cost him the win. Scott looked as though he was about to become another success story for the sport. There was talk of fights with John Conteh and Bob Foster, his future seemed laced with world titles, but his past would soon return.

Maybe inevitably, Scott, soon found himself back in Rahway. Involved in a violent robbery, in which one man, Everett Russ lost his life. As a multiple offender, this time his stay would be much longer. A charge of murder wasn’t proven, but a 30-40 year sentence was still handed down.

However, the boxing eventually continued, with the help of prison warden Robert S. Hatrak and when another inmate, Murad Muhammad who was also part of the Rahway Boxing Rehabilitation program, somehow funded the fights as the resident fight promoter, found a way for the inmate to fight professionally again despite being incarcerated in a state prison. Hatrak believed in redemption and resurrection, and Scott had a lifeline. Scott earned while he boxed, most of his earnings went on legal fees, the rest on food like steak and eggs, $104 a month to maintain the body in prime fighting shape. One thousand press-ups and sit-ups before breakfast is a story of legend. It is also true.

HBO was looking to get established in 1978, and with the WBA deeming Scott worthy of a world ranking, an unlikely alliance was formed. James Brown sang the National Anthem at a James Scott fight. Muhammad had an idea to let 500 in off the street to watch Scott do his thing and make them pay for the privilege of doing so. Miraculously, his scheme of apparent insanity was approved. A security nightmare. But they got away with it.

A couple of low-level wins and the WBA’s top-ranked contender Eddie Gregory, who later changed his name to Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, was tempted to take on Scott, HBO then entered the fray.

Scott with a record of 12-0-1 was deemed a curiosity, Gregory on the verge of a title shot against then-champion Mike Rossman, appeared to enter the prison walls seeing little threat. Gregory had served time himself, he called it a homecoming, but it was anything but.

Gregory was 1/4 to win, even the prison betting line had Gregory as the likely winner. But Scott showed the potential he had, dominating and battering his more favoured opponent, and won a clear unanimous decision.

Scott from being nothing more than a fascination, suddenly hit the headlines, even calling for a fight with Rossman himself. Harold Lederman who witnessed the fight from ringside called Scott ‘the best light-heavyweight he had ever seen.’

Five more wins followed the upset win over Gregory, solid opposition like Richie Kates and Bunny Johnson left the prison grounds empty-handed, but Rossman couldn’t be tempted to fight Scott. Neither could boxing’s most powerful people.

The WBA world title would become vacant, and Scott was already scheduled to fight the new number-one contender Yaqui Lopez. But hopes of Scott fighting for the vacant title were dashed. Scott and Lopez still traded blows, Scott won and in many ways, he was now the uncrowned champion.

But that was as good as it got for Scott. The WBA had second thoughts about having a convicted felon in their rankings. In 1979, his number two ranking was suddenly gone. His fate was decided in a smoky room somewhere. They claimed they didn’t know Scott was a resident of Rahway. How could they not?

Hatrak would soon be removed from his position and left Scott treading water, his peak and his hopes slipping away. Scott took on fellow contender Jerry Martin in 1980 and the dream would soon be over. Dropped in the 1st round and again in the 2nd, Scott survived but would eventually lose a decision to Martin.

The following year Scott was retried for the murder of Russ and this time the jury reached a verdict and he was found guilty and sentenced to life.

Also in 1981, Dwight Braxton, an early member of Rahway’s boxing programme, ended any lingering hopes of a title shot or anything else. In his 7th televised fight, while serving his sentence, Scott dropped a 10-round unanimous decision and the door slammed shut for the final time on his boxing career. Braxton was the end, the TV cameras didn’t return and neither did Scott. The loss to Braxton, later known as Dwight Muhammad Qawi, was his last contest, and he left the sport with a record of 19-2-1. The fight with Braxton was where the fight finally left his body, a fading fighter, a fading man.

The American prison system is one of survival rather than rehabilitation. Scott tried to escape it in different ways. Appeals led to nothing, attempts to fight outside of the prison walls ended without success. The voices of resentment grew louder, and Scott found he had no way out, nowhere to go, the story of his life.

A life inside that started with truancy, the teenage years setting the tone for what lay ahead in his adult life. Scott spent much of his life locked up and probably deserves very little sympathy for his plight. But he had genuine talent inside a boxing life, and for a time he had a glimmer of light in his life, in a place where the darkness allowed very little hope.

Maybe what happened in Rahway was a different form of punishment. Scott was shown a life he could have had, one of a world champion. Just when it seemed probable, agonisingly close at one stage, it disappeared when it was seemingly there for the taking. Without the boxing and the TV lights, Scott faded into obscurity, back to serving his time in more conventional ways, the way the system demanded. He followed Ratrak out of the Rahway door. Claims of a stitch-up with accusations involving drugs and threatening to kill a prison guard got him a transfer to another prison. Neither claim was investigated properly. The Rahway Boxing Program was eventually pulled.

Scott was finally released in 2005 after being behind bars for 28 years. He suffered from dementia in the later years of his life and died in a nursing home in 2018. Scott was inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012, an honour barely touching what he should and could have achieved.