Light Heavyweight Beethaeven Scottland Remembered
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Undefeated George Khalid Jones, then 15-0, Paterson, New Jersey, was never supposed to fight Beethaeven Scottland. The intended opponent for his 10 round light heavyweight bout on June 26, 2001, on the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York City was David Telesco. The record of Scottland, 20-6-2, seemed respectable enough to give him the last minute opportunity.
Super middleweight southpaw Scottland, nicknamed ‘Bee’, a native of North Brentwood, Maryland, had been inactive since August 2000, when he stopped 22-9-1 Roosevelt Walker in the seventh round in Washington, D.C. Scottland also won an eight round decision over Darren Whitney in Woodlawn, Maryland, in August 2000. Scottland’s bouts were all fought between 163 and170 pounds. Scottland was winless against opponents with winning records who weighed 168 pounds or higher. At 174 pounds, Jones was the heaviest opponent ever faced by Scottland with a winning record, meaning his walking weight entering the ring would be closer to a power cruiserweight.
Fighting on only five days notice, Scottland gave a game effort, if only to survive. Socttland could not find the openings, though he hung tough in an attempt to find something. Jones gave Scottland a frightful beating, and finally knocked him out at 2:30 of the tenth and final round. Scottland, on his back, went into a coma and died six days later.
George Khalid Jones knocks out Beethaeven Scottland on ESPN2, June 26, 2001
Attending Scottland’s funeral, Jones contemplated giving up boxing, and found it hard to concentrate in everyday life because of the tragedy. One day, Denise Scottland, Beethaeven’s widow, called Jones. “She told me that she has no hatred toward me. She understands the business (of professional boxing) which myself and her husband were in,” Jones said. “She said she would rather see me become a world champion, to show that Beethaeven was not in with an ordinary fighter. She caught me totally off guard. She taught me a lot about forgiveness.” In several years of conversations with Jones and his wife Naomi, Mrs. Scottland helped encourage Jones to continue his career, noting “Beethaeven would want it that way.”
Jones never got a world title opportunity. Jones was 38 years old when Glen Johnson stopped him in the tenth round of an IBF eliminator on July 30, 2005. After the Scottland tragedy, Jones fought on, but was never the same fighter. Against main event fighters Eric Harding, Montell Griffin, Darnell Wilson, James Crawford, and Glen Johnson, Jones had a record of0-3, with one draw and one No-Contest. Jones had a professional record of 23-3-1, with 13 knockouts.
Mrs. Scottland was right about one thing. It was not the Beethaeven Scottland she knew who lost to Jones, backing up and mostly taking blows for most of the contest. Scottland gave an effort, but was not properly prepared for the bout on five days of notice, so it was not a true demonstration of his abilities and potential.
Referee Arthur Mercante Jr. had been scheduled for the Jones versus Telesco bout, and refereed Jones versus Scottland instead. In my view, last minute opponents should not be allowed for the sake of saving television shows, or just plain boxing shows. The bout should have been stopped earlier than it was, as Jones did enough damage early on for the viewer to conclude the outcome was never in doubt. Even if Scottland were only given a few rounds of opportunity, in my view, the permanent damage absorbed would still have led to the tragedy. In my evaluation, Jones was never against the same fighter, which happened to the best of boxers in the history of the ring who have faced a similar happenstance.
A long lost video documentary on Jones and Mrs. Scottland can no longer be located, but I remember watching the brief documentary and thinking about the high level of forgiveness Mrs. Scottland showed. The photo accompanying this article is the only one I could find of Scottland. Sadly, after his head injury, he was already unconscious on the canvas.
It always seemed to me the death of Scottland, 26 years old, was needless, senseless, unnecessary and avoidable. In the first three rounds, Jones landed 50 punches, Scottland 11. Scottland had a cut over his left eye. In the fifth round, Jones landed 33 unanswered vicious punches, most to the heads of Scottland. ESPN2 commentator Max Kellerman stated “That’s it!” a number of Jones, adding “This is how guys get seriously hurt. I prefer referees who err on the side of caution.” The fight should have been stopped then, but it went on for another five rounds anyway, and I am still wondering why it did.
“I know it’s a 50-50 chance that I could die in the ring,” he had told an interviewer in 1997. “It’s known that people die in the ring. But that’s a chance I take. You’ve got a family you got to take care of financially, that’s your job.” Scottland, in an interview before the tragedy, noted boxing had turned around his life since getting thrown out of his childhood home for skipping school and selling drugs. “I achieved a lot of things in my life (due to boxing). I don’t party. I get up at 5 in the morning to run. I train. I’m in the gym every day. I come home and be a father to my kids, and a husband to my wife. That’s it.” Still, boxing was an occupation of nerves which required being able to deal with the pressure, which was never easy for Scottland, who noted “I wake up having butterflies. Boxing is something I have to do.” Let’s say if I would pass away right now, that I would die. I would like to have my kids say I did it (lived his life) the honest way: Dad stayed away from drugs, he tried to live a good life, not for himself, but for us, taking care of his family first.”
Scottland, who earned seven thousand dollars for the Jones bout, left behind his widow and three smallchildren. In the aftermath of the September 11 tragedy which hit New York City less than three months after Scottland passed away and overshadowed everything else, the Scottland bout has been largely forgotten in time. ESPN refuses to release a complete copy of the bout, making subsequent analysis of the who, what, where, when and why impossible. The Scottland tragedy never sat right with me as a boxing historian. But, as the late Emile Griffith so aptly put about a boxer’s life in the ring “Things happen,” reflecting on his victory over Benny Kid Paret, in which he knocked out Paret, and Paret went into a coma and died, in the era before Jones versus Scottland, Griffith understood it all so well.
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