James Scott vs

Qawi had also done time at Rahway Prison didn't he ? So he wasn't bothered about the atmosphere. But the Qawi, Martin, fights do have a pattern regarding that Scott didn't like being backed up.

I also think Marvin Johnson would've bulled Scott, and I think Matthew Saad Muhammad would've beat him aswell had Scott been allowed to fight for the title.

 

Ya Dwight was in for several years.

 

I think your slightly missing the point though, the reason why Qawi, Martin, beat Scott is because they forced him to back up and they bullied him.

Whilst Eddie Mustafa Muhammad was a good fighter when he was on it, he didn't seem to turn up vs Scott and his style is more of boxer.

Style wise Martin, Qawi, matched up well vs Scott because they were physically stronger, and forced Scott to go backwards it's a matter of styles.

 

I don’t know how we can know what distractions he did or didn’t have. It’s not like he was in a gym with a nice apartment on the side. He had to deal with prison life — guards, other inmates, working on his appeals, all kinds of things we probably can’t imagine.

Not to mention he surely didn’t have free reign for gym time, quality sparring that he’d have on the outside, had to use who was there for a trainer, no control over his nutrition, etc.

It’s not like people in prison live stress-free lives. More just the opposite.

 

I don’t agree on the Mustafa that showed up. Look at him in most of his fights and watch the first several rounds of the Scott fight — his counters are sharp, he’s in great shape. Then Scott starts to beat him down.

EMM was never some tiger who got unleashed at the bell. He was a cerebral fighter, almost always had a bored expression, never a huge workrate guy but put his punches and counters together well. I think he’s the same guy but just fought a better fighter that night, a guy on a mission.

 

Scott sprung quite the surprise on Eddie. The public saw it as a sideshow and Eddie thought it was going to be an easy nights work and was even talking about carrying the fight for as bit. He knew he'd knocked out a couple of stiffs behind bars and didn't rate that much. Eddie never got started. It was a combination of Eddie thinking it an easy nights work, a good "workout" and Scott being a genuine world class contender with a style that Eddie struggled with. Scott wanted it far more as Eddie, as Eddie could do, forgot where the gas pedal was.

Eddie wanted to validate the title after he won it by fighting Scott but it never eventuated. Eddie said on camera that he would fight Scott and Scott turned him back saying he wanted Saad Muhammad. Crazy. Just after that he was dropped as number #1 contender.

At any rate Scott beat a bunch of contenders and mostly one sidedly. He may well have been the best light heavyweight in the world for a time. He and Saad would have been utterly insane.

 

Great post, John. No surprise.

 

James Scott gets so overlooked on this forum. Go back and rewatch the Martin fight. Scott got caught with a hard shot and went down in the first and shouldn't have got up but struggled through another knockdown that should have kayoed him before righting himself. He pulled himself together and was winning the rounds on all the commentators scorecards by the end of 10. I think if it had gone 12, he would've won on points. Even taking those shots, guy was tough as nails and was outbuilding Martin in the trenches by the end which was amazing.

Also, he took on prime and extra motivated Qawi and never even so much blinked from anything Qawi threw at him. In fact, the only one who was hurt in that fight was Qawi in the 9th. Looked to me that Scott was pretty careful to not turn on the jets when he had him hurt. Always wondered if he got the word that his possible parole might have been affected if he beat Rahway's honor grad. In any event, he seemed unaffected by Qawi's wanted pressure.

I think prime Scott is 50/50 with Spinks. Let's not overrate Michael now. He looked to be outslicked by Eddie Davis, who is a full couple notches underneath Mr. Scott and struggled with Riverdeneyra too. He could be outboxed by the right slickster. Foster might be the toughest of the three and I'd bet him to win. Tommy was before my time so I can't say. Defer to you guys who go back further than me.

 

Loughran possibly, but not Spinks or Foster.

 

I think EMM in particular was intimidated fighting Scott at Rahway.

Assuming these fights are on neutral territory, all three overcame better fighters than Scott, so I favour all three to beat him.