The following rememberance is a very sad one for me.
MOST TRAGIC SITUATIONS: The deaths of Rueben Bell, Jerry Ballard and Beethavean Scottland
During this 15-year period, the Beltway Boxing area lost three of its potentially brightest stars. I know there were many that even I'm not aware of, but these touched me personally because I had the opportunity to work around them.
Out of the three, Bell was the youngest and probably the one with the most potential. Bell was fighting as a junior middleweight and middleweight and he had tremendous power. Not only were he scoring one-punch knockouts, he was scoring FIRST-punch knockouts as in, the first punch he threw in a bout, he knocked a guy out.
Unfortunately, as Bell started to rise in competition, his attitude about the sport started to go sour. In the biggest match of his career – a 10-round bout against Paul Vaden in 1995 in which the winner was to get a world title shot – Bell came in unprepared. Talent alone made the 10-round decision a close one. If he had been in the best shape, Bell would have won easily. Vaden went on to get the title shot and defeat Vincent Pettway for the IBF Junior Middleweight title.
Two years later, September 12, 1997, Bell got another shot at glory. Now fighting as a middleweight, Bell took on former three-time world champion and DC resident Simon Brown in a nationally-televised bout in Pikesville, MD. Brown was on the downside of his great career and many thought Bell would take care of the veteran easily. Through the first three rounds, Bell did exactly that. But in the fourth and fifth rounds, something went wrong. Bell wasn't throwing as many punches and looked sluggish. At the end of the fifth round, Bell sat on his stool and didn't get back up. The bout was over.
What we didn't know then was that would be the last time we would see Bell in a boxing ring. After the Brown bout, Bell was informed that he had stomach cancer. Fortunately, it was in its early stages and could be treated. Bell immediately went for treatment at the Washington Hospital Center. The prognosis was becoming excellent for Bell's return to the ring. But fate played a part in this and Bell's past, which had been littered with numerous run-ins with the law, caught up to him.
Someone named Tomar Locker apparently watched the bout between Bell and Brown. According to later court records, Locker kept hearing Bell's nickname "Ratman" and thought it might have been the same person who organized the shooting and killing of he and his girlfriend in 1994. The girlfriend died. Bell was never formally charged with any involvement in the situation but Locker wanted revenge. He got his revenge on February 5, 1998 when he walked into the Washington Hospital Center lobby and saw Bell as he was waiting for his latest treatment. Locker opened fire and killed Bell. Locker was later found not guilty by reason of insanity. At just 24 years old, Reuben Bell's promising boxing career and, more importantly, his life had been snuffed out.
Promising heavyweight Jerry "The Technician" Ballard's passing hit hard for a couple of reasons. The DC native was seemingly on the way to rebuilding his career after a tough knockout loss to now-WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz in 1998.
Prior to that loss, Ballard had a solid career, holding victories over fellow DC native Corey "T-Rex" Sanders and former Cruiserweight contender Vincent Boulware. The Boulware bout was for the NABO Heavyweight title. His last two wins were against trial horses Jason Waller and Garing Lane. Ballard put Lane in the hospital with a devastating knockout on the "Triple Jeopardy" card at MCI Center on April 24, 1999.
During the press conference after the "Triple Jeopardy" card, I was getting ready to interview Ballard on tape for a local radio sports show. Just as we started, Don King decided to start the conference and I never got to do the interview. It would be the last time I would see Ballard alive. On August 24, 1999, Ballard was murdered at the age of 32. I truly regret never getting a chance to do that interview.
The death of Beethavean Scottland was the one most closely associated with the actual sport of boxing. On June 26, 2001, Scottland stepped into the ring aboard the USS Intrepid Museum in New York to face George Khalid Jones. Scottland took the bout on just five days notice.
Just a day before he accepted the bout with Jones, I saw Scottland at Michael's Eighth Avenue in Glen Burnie. Scottland was scheduled to fight there against Baltimore's Dana Rucker, but Rucker hurt his ankle and had to back out of the fight. Bee came to the show and we briefly talked. I remember telling him how disappointed I was that he wasn't able to fight that evening. At that time, neither one of us knew about the Jones bout.
When Scottland walked into the ring on the 26th, he looked ready but from the first bell, something seemed wrong. Jones was in control in the early going. Bee showed the heart that he was famous for and stayed in the bout, but he just couldn't get the full advantage. Despite all this, Scottland was ahead on one of the cards. All he had to do is survive the 10th and final round and he would have at least gotten a draw.
Unfortunately as we know, Scottland suffered a TKO in the final round and slipped into a coma. Five days later, Bee Scottland was gone at the age of 26. What a tragedy.
I have to mention something about Bee's funeral, because it provided me with probably the most touching moment I've ever shared in my sportswriting career. Just about everyone I've ever known in Beltway Boxing was there. George Khalid Jones was there also, along with his trainer, the legendary Lou Duva. Jones told folks afterwards that he really was afraid to come, thinking that people there would take out their sorrows on him. The exact opposite happened. There was a whole lot of support for him. Some encouraged him to win the light heavyweight title in Bee's memory. We all knew that this was a tough moment for him as well. Unfortunately, Jones' career did suffer because of this. The love shown for both Bee and Jones that day was just incredible.
Earlier this year, Jones fought for the first time in Maryland, taking on Darnell "The Ding-A-Ling Man" Wilson at Michael's Eighth Avenue. In the crowd was Bee's widow, Denise, who was rooting hard for Jones. Later, the two would meet for the first time. They would become friends. Even the most positive moments can come out of the most tragic situations.
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4 comments:
these were some sad tragedies... coming up in the palmer park gym in the 80's and 90's, i have seen many deaths... while , i did not know bell or ballard, i knew bee pretty well from the fights. we were in the same division in the amatuers (165lb), we never got to fight though. i would lose in the semi-finals. :) he would make it to the finals. i remember seeing him fight boogalow watts at the old convention center and it was no way bee should have been fighting him that soon is his pro career. bee was stopped late in the fight i think..
You make a VERY good point about the Watts-Scottland bout. That bout never should have happened that early in their careers. Bee was stopped late in the bout and that was the only other time Bee was stopped in a bout.
This is a topic I may touch on in detail later, but this area has a tendency to match promising young boxers against one another too soon. Watts-Scottland was a perfect example of that and that bout damaged both men's careers.
Just dug this up, Gary. You'll probably not see this post, but Ratman Bell was always reputed to run with a bad, gang crowd. If he murdered that girl, then he got what he deserved. Ballard, a lovable doof, reputedly loved robbing drug dealers and took a shank for it in an alley. Bee was Bee, a beautiful guy.
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