He started training as a boxer at age 14 along with his older brother Benjamin “Kid” Perez to emulate his idol Battling Siki, a boxing champion from Senegal.

[2] Facing stiff competition, he lost the title the next year, on 31 October 1932, to Jackie Brown in a twelve round points decision in Manchester, England.

In an attempt at the World Bantamweight title on 19 February 1934, he was defeated in a difficult 15 round bout by "Panama" Al Brown, who held a ten inch height advantage.

[5] On 21 September 1943, after being denounced by an acquaintance, Perez was arrested in Paris by the Milice Francaise, a French collaborationist paramilitary force of the Vichy Regime.

On 18 January 1945, Perez became one of the prisoners on the death march from Monowitz in Poland, 37 miles (60 km) Northwest to the Gleiwitz concentration camp near the Czech border.

According to eye witness testimony he was shot to death by a guard while attempting to distribute bread he had found in Gleiwitz's kitchen to other starving prisoners.