James Scott (boxer)

In 1984, Scott was transferred back to Trenton State Prison, and later to South Woods State Prison. He was released from prison on parole in 2005 after serving 28 years. Scott's parole officer, trying to find a way to fill his time, took Scott to a boxing gym with a youth program. There, Scott worked with kids on training and gave tips on boxing to them. He would also travel to watch their matches around the state. On November 8, 2012, Scott was inducted in the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame. President of the Hall of Fame, Henry Hascup, stated that Scott's boxing alone would have qualified him for the Hall of Fame much earlier, but his questionable past made entry difficult. Hascup was swayed to make it happen after speaking with the trainers and kids from the boxing gym. In his final years, Scott suffered from dementia and at the end of his life lived in a New Jersey nursing home. He died on May 8, 2018 at the age of 70.

After suffering his first loss more than five months after the López fight, Scott was retried for the murder of Russ and was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. He fought twice more, winning the first fight and losing the second. Scott was paroled in 2005 after serving 28 years. He was inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012, and died in 2018.

According to the Essex County prosecutor's office, Scott and others with him picked up Everett Russ, who was standing outside a bar with a friend. Scott asked Russ to take him to a drug dealer, so Russ led Scott to an apartment belonging to Leo Skinner, who planned to buy drugs from a building next door. While in the next building, Scott, Russ, Skinner, and William Spinks—one of the men traveling with Scott—took the elevator up but held it for Yvonne Barrett, who was headed to the same apartment they were. Skinner did not want a crowd at this apartment, so he stopped the elevator at the eighth floor. Spinks then pulled out a handgun and ordered Barrett and Skinner out; Scott stepped off as well, while Russ took the elevator down to wait in the car with another member of Scott's group. Scott received the gun from Spinks and pistol-whipped Skinner, ordered him to strip, and threatened to throw him off the building over concerns he would tell police. Afterward, Spinks pointed the gun at Barrett and took her to her sister's tenth-floor apartment, where $283 and bags containing a white powder substance were stolen. Scott then shot Russ in his car to prevent him from telling police. Russ' body was pushed out of the car, which then sped off, and a nearby motorist wrote down the license plate number, which came back to Scott's car. Newark police located the car and found blood stains and bullet holes. At his second trial in 1981, 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.

After being ordered by a judge to stand trial, in 1981, he was retried for the murder of Everett Russ and was found guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison on March 20, 1981. Scott continued to maintain his innocence, insisting he was appealing the verdict and would continue to pursue the light heavyweight championship, though the loss to Martin and subsequent conviction for murder marked the functional end of Scott's consideration as a serious contender. 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, and he knew Scott at the prison. Scott finished his boxing career with a record of 19 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw.

Scott was still allowed to fight professionally after Hatrak's departure. His next fight against Bunny Johnson, aired nationally on NBC, resulted in Scott winning by knockout in the seventh round. Johnson was the fifth choice for an opponent for Scott. Ranked number 3, Scott knocked out Italian light heavyweight champion Ennio Cometti [it] at the end of the fifth round. 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. Scott was ranked as high as number 2 in the WBA rankings. However, he started to receive controversy on why he should be allowed to fight and make money while incarcerated. While Scott was paid for his fights, his earnings were sent to the New Jersey Department of Corrections, and he was given strict limitations on how he could use the money. Approved uses included hiring attorneys for his appeals and paying back his public defenders, donations to a crime victim's fund, and training expenses. Scott said of the situation in a 1980 phone interview, "A lot of people resented the idea of my making money while I was in prison. They didn’t feel I was being punished enough. What am I going to spend it on, anyway? People on the outside just want the people on the inside to be punished all the time."

On May 25, 1980, five and a half months after the López fight, Scott had his first professional loss, an upset in which he was defeated by Jerry "The Bull" Martin. Scott was knocked down twice by Martin during the fight, once in the first round and once in the fifth. He was defeated by decision. Scott was paid $40,000 for the fight, of which 10% was donated to a crime victims' fund.

Scott's next fight was scheduled for December 1, 1979, against Yaqui López, the WBA number 1 contender for the light heavyweight championship. Shortly before the fight, WBA light heavyweight champion Víctor Galíndez was stripped of the title, so Muhammad asked the WBA if Scott's fight with López could be a 15-round bout for the championship. Then, in September 1979, the WBA decided to reconsider whether Scott should have a ranking at all based on his criminal record. The major concern at the WBA was the championship being held by someone in prison; the competing WBC had never ranked Scott due to his incarceration. According to boxing promoter Bob Arum, the WBA had only then found out that Scott's incarceration was scheduled for 30-40 years.

The WBA removed Scott from its rankings in October 1979. The vote on the issue was 60 to 1 in favor of removal, with the lone vote for retention coming from New Jersey deputy boxing commissioner Bob Lee. The WBA cited concerns that as an imprisoned convict, Scott did not set a "good example", and that his opponents were disadvantaged because they had to come to the prison for all of his bouts. Sports Illustrated questioned whether those were the real motives for removing Scott from the rankings, given that the same conditions had applied when the WBA had started to rank him the year before. Scott speculated that the removal of his ranking had to do with the influence of Arum on the WBA, and that Arum offered a contract to Scott in 1979 but Muhammad convinced Scott not to accept it. Scott blamed Muhammad for not looking out for his best interest, while Muhammad claimed that he had exclusive rights to Scott via an agreement with the Department of Corrections. Without being ranked, Scott was not allowed to compete for a championship. Afterward, the WBA reinstated Galíndez as the light heavyweight champion.

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 one inmate, he was so focused that he would not break formation with the inmates running with him. He would then do a thousand pushups. According to Dickens, who was now serving time in Rahway with Scott, he estimated in 1978 that Scott had ran 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.

Though initially scheduled to be 10 rounds, the bout was set for 12 rounds only five days before the fight. On fight day, October 12, 1978, Rahway's auditorium was at full capacity, with an additional 1,150 inmates watching on screens in the drill hall. HBO Sports sent Don Dunphy, Larry Merchant, and Sugar Ray Leonard to commentate the fight. Gregory was a 4:1 favorite in betting odds, while inmates bet cartons of cigarettes on similar lines. Scott came out swinging at the start of the fight, and made a bump under Gregory's eye in the fourth round. According to Scott, he then realized he had to pace himself because this fight was likely to go the full scheduled 12 rounds. During the last round, Gregory's corner screamed at him to go for a knockout. The bout ended without one and went to the judge's scores, where all three judges awarded the victory to Scott.

In March 1976, Scott was found guilty of armed robbery, but the jury was hung on the murder charge. As Scott was a repeat offender, judge Ralph L. Fusco sentenced him to 30 to 40 years in prison. Initially imprisoned at Trenton, he was transferred to Rahway State Prison on May 27, 1977. He was assigned the inmate number 57735.

While in New Jersey on a visit to the state on May 8, 1975, Scott was arrested and charged with murder and armed robbery. Sources vary on how Scott was arrested. In one account, Scott heard that Newark police wanted to speak with him. Deciding not to speak with an attorney first, Scott went to the Newark police headquarters. In another account, Scott was picked up by the police for a parole violation. After initially being held as a material witness, he was arrested. According to Scott, the arrest occurred the day before his fight with Conteh was to be announced at a press conference.

During his time in prison, Scott sent letters to various boxing promoters and reached out to them via collect calls. This led to Scott being offered to be managed by an architect named Murray Gaby, who was based in Miami. Gaby made arrangements using political connections to have Scott paroled and allowed to live in Florida. On January 8, 1974, Scott was granted work-parole. He trained at the 5th Street Gym, the same gym where Muhammad Ali trained, and fought at the Miami Beach Auditorium. According to Ali's personal physician, who was present at Scott's first sparring session, Scott did not have money and arrived in a pair of cut-off denim shorts and basketball shoes, and had to have boxing gear put together from available equipment at the gym. Gaby said of Scott's performance in his first sparring session, "When Scott started throwing punches, there was dead silence in the gym. Other fighters stopped and watched. He went two rounds, had the guy out on his feet. Everybody gave him an ovation. Very dramatic."

Scott stated that he only pursued boxing seriously after being released in 1968 and subsequently being arrested and convicted of armed robbery. He was sentenced to 13 to 17 years in prison. During this time, Scott became the light heavyweight champion of the New Jersey prison system. According to Pat Putnam of Sports Illustrated, Scott "destroy[ed] opponents until there were no more challengers".

James Onque Scott Jr. (October 17, 1947 – May 8, 2018) was an American boxer and convicted murderer. He became the number 2 ranked contender in the World Boxing Association's (WBA) light heavyweight division while incarcerated at Rahway State Prison in Avenel, New Jersey. Scott fought a total of 22 professional fights. 11 of those fights were contested while he was in prison, and Scott earned pay and WBA rankings from many of those fights, which was considered controversial.

Scott was born on October 17, 1947 to Ursaleen and James Onque Scott, Sr., in Newark, New Jersey. He was the second of twelve siblings. Scott grew up in various areas of Newark, including the Felix Fuld public housing complex and later in the central ward. 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.