James Scott

James Onque Scott Jr.Efn|According to his obituary, Scott was also known as Rajan Muhammad. In 1978, he described his family as "a typical Black family." He also stated that his parents were divorced and that his mother was on welfare. Scott's brother Malcolm was serving life in prison for murder. According to Scott, "I wasn't attracted to pimps or narcotic dealers; I was attracted to the gangs and their leaders." Scott was given his first pair of boxing gloves by his uncle at age 10. One of Scott's early amateur fights at Trenton was against Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, against whom he lasted three rounds. After the bout, Scott's promoter Chris Dundee called out Bob Foster and publicly offered him $100,000 for a fight with Scott.

Scott fought twice more in Miami, earning two more victories. At this point, he had earned approximately $15,000, was living with a woman in an apartment, and had a vehicle.

Scott's training regimen at Rahway was intense, and other inmates trained with him as well. He would begin by running for an hour every morning in the prison yard; According to Dickens, who was now serving time in Rahway with Scott, he estimated in 1978 that Scott had run nearly 900 miles in total, performed 51,000 pushups, 16,000 situps, and completed his daily routine with speed bag and heavy bag training. Scott would also spar with inmates and others as part of the program, but problems were found in locating sparring partners. Trenton State Prison's heavyweight champion was brought to Rahway to spar, only to have Scott break three of his ribs. Dave Lee Royster, who fought Scott to a draw in Miami and was an outside visitor, was knocked out by him during sparring and did not return. In 2014, Harold Lederman, one of the judges of the fight, recalled, "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." A month after the Kates fight, Hatrak was reassigned and no longer was the warden at Rahway. The new warden, Sidney Hicks, was a guard who had pressed assault charges on Scott at Trenton State Prison for hitting another inmate with a pipe. Shortly after Hatrak was replaced, Scott hired an attorney with what money he had and appealed to be released on bail. This request was denied. Ranked number 3, Scott defeated Italian light heavyweight champion at the end of the fifth round when a prison physician stopped the fight because of a cut over Cometti's left eye. In his entire career, at least four of Scott's professional bouts held in prison were broadcast by NBC Sports, two by CBS Sports and one by HBO. ABC Sports declined to provide Scott with national television coverage due to his felony conviction and incarceration. Nevertheless, Scott changed his mind shortly afterward and announced that he was "unretired" and would fulfill his contracts. His next fight was against Jerry Celestine, whom he defeated by decision and claimed he was not trying to score a knockout to preserve his hand for a fight with López. Muhammad expressed support for Scott and a desire to continue to help him, as well as optimism that the WBA decision to strip his ranking would be overturned.

Although Scott was no longer ranked, López wanted to proceed to fight Scott on the basis of earning a payday. He was slated to earn $40,000 for fighting Scott, with Scott earning $20,000. The next month after the Celestine fight, Scott fought López, and defeated him by decision in a fight broadcast on NBC. No knockdowns occurred in the bout, but Scott cut López open as early as the first round. After the match, Scott declared that he should be the number 1 contender and called out new WBA light heavyweight champion Marvin Johnson and WBC heavyweight champion Larry Holmes. López stated that he wanted a rematch. Boxing publication The Ring named Scott their world light heavyweight champion after the match.

Murder conviction and later career

"He had a great run. He proved he was one of the best light heavyweights in the world, but once that chance of him fighting for a world title was virtually zero, there was no reason for people to pay attention. Then it was much easier to just view him as every other inmate in a maximum security prison, which means forgetting him." — ~Steve Farhood Scott was knocked down twice by Martin, once in the first round and again late in the second round. He was defeated by decision. Scott was paid $40,000 for the fight, of which 10% was donated to a crime victims' fund. At this second trial, the prosecutor presented a slightly different version of events, attesting that Scott went into the building alone, robbed Barrett and assaulted Skinner before shooting Russ, who was expecting to receive drugs as well. Scott was found guilty that February, and was sentenced to life in prison on March 20, 1981.

In August, Scott defeated Dave Lee Royster, who had fought Scott to a draw in 1974. Scott's last professional fight was on September 5, 1981, when he lost a unanimous decision to Dwight Braxton. Braxton had formerly been an inmate at Rahway State Prison, serving five and a half years for armed robbery. He knew Scott from time together at both Rahway and Trenton State Prisons, and was a part of the boxing program at Rahway. Scott finished his boxing career with a record of 19 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw. His parole officer, trying to find a way to fill Scott's time, took Scott to a boxing gym with a youth program. There, Scott worked with children on training and gave tips on boxing to them. He would also travel to watch their matches around the state.

According to Hascup, Scott would have been a household name in boxing had he not been in trouble most of his life. Result Record Opponent Type Round (scheduled), time Date Location 22 Loss 19–2–1

UD 10 September 5, 1981

21 Win 19–1–1

TKO 7 (10), August 10, 1981

20 Loss 18–1–1

UD 10 May 25, 1980

19 Win 18–0–1

UD 10 December 1, 1979

18 Win 17–0–1

UD 10 October 27, 1979

17 Win 16–0–1

RTD 5 (10), August 26, 1979

16 Win 15–0–1

RTD 7 (10), July 1, 1979

15 Win 14–0–1

TKO 10 (10), March 10, 1979

14 Win 13–0–1

UD 12 October 12, 1978

13 Win 12–0–1

TKO 4 (10) September 9, 1978

12 Win 11–0–1

KO 2 (8) May 24, 1978

11 Win 10–0–1

MD 10 February 25, 1975

10 Win 9–0–1

UD 10 November 19, 1974

9 Draw 8–0–1

MD 10 September 10, 1974

8 Win 8–0

UD 10 July 9, 1974

7 Win 7–0

KO 5 (10), May 14, 1974

6 Win 6–0

UD 10 April 23, 1974

5 Win 5–0

UD 10 April 2, 1974

4 Win 4–0

TKO 8 (10), March 5, 1974

3 Win 3–0

TKO 4 (8) February 19, 1974

2 Win 2–0

KO 3 (6) February 5, 1974

1 Win 1–0

UD 6 January 22, 1974