The Official Pete Sanstol Web Site
No Easy Fights For Me!

In early 1935, Pete Sanstol petitioned the International Boxing Union in Paris to recognize him as a leading contender for the Bantamweight Championship of the World, and to furnish him a bout to that end. Short of that, he demanded a fight with Joseph Decico, European Bantam Champion. (Some say Decico was "only" the Bantam Champ of France at this time.) The IBU in turn demanded that Pete deposit 1,500 francs, go out to fight the best Europe had to offer, and wait three months. He satisfied all three conditions but the IBU still dawdled. In America Pete had learned that "Time Means Money," reported a Montreal paper a few months later. Realizing that the IBU was not going to support him in his efforts, he decided to return to his old home of Montreal to solicit a world title match there.

At this time, "Panama" Al Brown was still considered the Bantamweight World Champion by the IBU but not by the Montreal Athletic Commission, the National Boxing Association, or the New York State Athletic Commission - although today's boxing history accounts all swear that he was the undisputed bantam king from June 1929 to June 1935. According to the 1935 Everlast Boxing Record, p. 131, "The altitudinous Panamanian has been on top for so long that he grew lax in defending his title and some of the boxing authorities apparently grew tired of seeing him at the top of the list, for he was legislated out of the title by most of the governing bodies, with the exception of those in Europe." The IBU always had been Brown's strongest supporter, probably because he was so popular in France. Pete, too, had once been quite popular in France ever since his fighting days there in 1926. Not only had he fought well there, but he spoke the language fluently, which the French people loved. Hadn't Pete been known as "The Little Carpentier" after France's most celebrated boxer? Plus Pete had a huge following in Quebec, Canada -- a predominantly French province.

Therefore it is very likely that when Pete asked the IBU for a title match, he was actually once again challenging Brown himself. "Oh, oh!" Brown possibly thought. Sanstol was back after almost an 18-month absence to challenge him yet again for the crown. Sanstol wasn't still a threat, was he? He didn't "have it" anymore, did he? It couldn't be. Not another comeback! Brown also knew that after six years as the World Champion -- in one sense or another -- he was on his last legs. If Sanstol was finally going to win the crown, let it be against someone else. So, did Brown give his best when he met Baltasar Sangchili June 1st, when he ultimately lost the title?

Historians now consider Sangchili a most "undeserving" world champion. (See the May 1981 issue of The Ring magazine, for example.) There is some merit to this criticism: But for his two wins over Victor "Young" Perez, a draw with Decico, and a draw with Brown March 18, Sangchili had not fought any other top-contending bantamweight of note. And about 95% of his 60 professional bouts up to his title bout with Al Brown had been in Spain, not known as any kind of bantamweight boxing country. He had even lost a bid for the Bantamweight Champion of Europe.

When Pete thought about it in retrospect, Montreal was the logical place to go. He had been treated very well by its fans and press. He had many stirring battles and been quite successful there. Most importantly, however, the city had long been sponsoring many eminent bantamweight fights, with Pete having been in its very first two title events -- winning the first against Archie Bell and proclaimed the Bantam World Champion, and then narrowly losing the second to Al Brown in a "much disputed decision" on August 25, 1931. (Pete's successful title defenses against Art Giroux and Eugene Huat should be included as well.)

Since then Montreal had staged many other major bantam battles. For example, Huat had challenged Brown October 27, 1931, but lost the decision. Afterward, Brown would never come back to fight in Montreal again. He would appear only seven more times in North American rings over the course of his following 44 contests before his reign as the world champion ended with that June 1 bout with Sangchili.

Escobar, nicknamed "El Gallito," was born March 13, 1913, in Barcelona, Puerto Rico. He became a professional boxer at 17 years of age, winning his first bout September 1, 1930, over Luis Perez in San Juan. Many of his following 25 contests were held in Venezuela where he was a huge favorite.

If there was one thing Escobar was known for, it was his soporific, dream-inducing right cross. He inflicted devastating and early damage with that right. Few could withstand it. In his first dozen professional fights he often knocked out opponents in the second, fifth or sixth round.

On May 7, 1934, Sixto Escobar made his first appearance in a ring north of Puerto Rico for the grand sum of $68.00. Can you guess his opponent? That's right! The Canadian Bantamweight Champion himself, Bobby Leitham, Pete Sanstol's old nemesis. (Pete and Bobby had endured a bitter and much-publicized rivalry that today still ranks as one of the greatest in Canadian boxing history.) Escobar knocked-out Leitham in the seventh round in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Then Escobar won a ten-round decision over Joey Archibald May 21 in the same town.

Leitham wanted another crack at the Puerto Rican, so they fought June 5 in Montreal where Sixto again KO'd Bobby -- this time in the fifth round.

Meanwhile, the National Boxing Association -- later renamed the World Boxing Association (WBA) July 1963 at its annual meeting in Las Vegas -- which had stood behind Al Brown in his claim to the official world title since at least 1932, abandoned its support because of his refusal to fight top contender Baby "Face" Casanova of Mexico. A Century of Boxing Greats by Patrick Myler (1997) at p. 39. From at least 1931 there had been constant accusations that Brown refused to fight some of the best North American contenders for his crown on home ground. This was the reason the New York State Athletic Commission had taken back its bantam crown from him, too.  An Illustrated History of Boxing by Nat Fleischer & Sam Andre (updated by Nigel Collins)(1997) at p. 376. After the Montreal Athletic Commission had come to that same conclusion in 1931, it sponsored the Archie Bell vs Pete Sanstol title match, which Pete won. The NBA, Brown and his manager, among others, refused to acknowledge the bantam title Pete had earned and deserved. Pete's world title is not recalled by today's boxing historians -- so far.

When Sixto Escobar KO'd Baby Casanova in the ninth round June 26, 1934, in Montreal, he was acknowledged the world champion by the New York State Athletic Commission and by the NBA as well. Two months later, Escobar beat Eugene Huat in Montreal to win the Seagram Belt for recognition by the Canadian authorites as the World Bantam Champion. The IBU in Paris, however, still considered Brown the bantam king. All this while Escobar attempted to extricate that remaining vestige of the bantam title possessed by Brown. As Pete had done four years earlier, Escobar made numerous challenges for Brown's crown for almost a year, but to no avail. Brown would have nothing to do with him either.

This was about the time Sixto Escobar caught the attention of Pete Sanstol. Escobar, at 22 years of age, was now, in June 1935, considered by most as the best bantamweight boxer in the world -- except for Sanstol, figured Pete (of course). Pete, afraid of no bantam, wanted a shot at El Gallito!

It was with Escobar in mind that Pete was returning to Montreal. Maybe he could convince the Montreal boxing authorities to give him a crack at the man recognized as the true world champion.

Champion Sixto Escobar
________

Pete was due to arrive in Montreal the second week of June 1935. When the press learned he was returning the whole city turned up-side down. He was ranked "with Leo Kid Roy as the greatest ring attraction Montreal ever had," said one Montreal newspaper. Preceding his arrival headlines announced, "Sanstol Is On His Way" and "Sanstol on Way Back to Montreal to Fight."

Montreal fight fans will be more than pleased to hear that the popular little Norwegian battler is returning here. He provided some of the most stirring mills seen around these parts. A smart boxer and an aggressive fighter, he combined all that it takes to please local fight fans. Few Montrealers will forget Pete's sensational fights here. The night he kayoed Kid Roger when that French-Canadian was one of the most promising bantam prospects, and later when he clamped the snore on Art Giroux, and lost a hard-fought and close decision to Panama Al Brown, world's bantam champion.

The subsequent August 7, 1935, edition of the Montreal Daily Herald affirmed that:

The fistic picture has changed vastly in the four-year period, as the fistic picture inevitably does. Brown himself is now a discarded and discredited figure. A great champion in his day, largely because of his freakish physical construction, height and enormous reach, he was recently beat by a Spanish fighter. His title has been declared forfeited all over the world because of his refusal to fight. Huat has slipped to mediocrity, Newsboy Brown has since retired, but Sanstol, one of the most durable battlers the division has known in any era, still carries on, and is today, after ten years of campaigning, ranked high among the world's bantams.

Then Pete was greeted by delegates from the Norwegian Consulate of Montreal (including Knute Orre), his old and good friend Arne Rutquist of the Swedish American Steamship Lines, representatives of the Montreal Athletic Commission, fellow boxers, the press, and fans. "Tall, soldierly C.P.R. policemen" held the crowd back.

According to the Montreal Daily Herald:

[Pete] acknowledged all greetings in kind, his white teeth showing a gay smile as he spoke rapidly in three Scandinavian dialects, acknowledged greetings in French and English, tossed gay repartee in German and greeted two or three warmly in pure and understandable Yiddish.

"This is like home," Sanstol told the newsmen. "I'm back in the city where I had my greatest success as a boxer and if I can show you all once again how good I am, then I'll be very happy."

There was a boom of flashlights as he lined up for pictures with the other greats of other days in Montreal's boxing rings -- Leo Kid Roy, Raymond Lirzin, Gene Demers, [and] Bobby Leitham, who was Sanstol's great local rival.

he is not ready to accept a match with Carlos "Baby" Quintana. The Blonde Bullett [sic] shows little enthusiasm for a bout with one of the fighters defeated in the bantamweight eliminations which have progressed jerkily in Montreal rings for the past year. He wants to meet top-notchers in the division, one of the fighters who was successful here. He mentions Sixto Escobar, the Puerto Rican holder of the Seagram belt and recognized by the Montreal Athletic Commission as world champion. He'll take on Lou Salica, one of last Autumn's winners or Juan Zurita, the Mexican champion who scored a victory over Escobar some weeks ago.

Then, to all assembled, Pete declared, "I'm here to fight myself back to a position I once held in Montreal. I'm here to give you the best and the result will be my thanks to you."

The press related that Pete "demands a world title match with Sixto Escobar, the Puerto Rican bomber who was recognized as world champion here a year ago and whose title holds on a pretty solid structure after a year in which efforts to match him with Panama Al Brown have been unavailing." Montreal Daily Herald, June 11, 1935.

The next day Pete headed directly to a meeting of the Montreal Boxing Commission and "challenged for the bantam championship of the world, asking for a bout with Sixto Escobar, recognized by the commission as the present holder of the title. The matter was left in abeyance."

A day or two later Pete spoke with the press. "After my experiences with the International Boxing Union in Europe, I have come to the firm realization that only the Montreal Boxing Commission can give me what I want -- a chance at the title. They have made promises to me in the best [past?] and have always kept them. They're square shooters and I'm all for them. I told Frank Hogan the other day that if he gives me the support I'll supply the fighting and give him everything I have." (In 1937 Hogan would become the President of the National Boxing Association.)

Pete wants no set-ups on his trail to the bantam crown. "I'll turn down anything that looks like an easy fight -- I'm out for business." He wants no favors. He wants fights -- hard, rip-roaring, knock 'em down and drag 'em out encounters that will make ring history and himself the champion....

He is not the Pete of old but a wise fighter who has grown careful and skilled in the lore of not wasting any energy in the ring -- of making every blow count. [A lesson Pete had learned from his 1931 title match with Panama Al Brown.]

The Montreal Athletic Commission finally gave its answer to Pete's challenge. Pete Sanstol was granted another shot at the world title!
 
 

On June 22 a Montreal newspaper confirmed that Pete "went right to the top with Escobar, risking the reputation he so hardly won through great fights with Al Brown, victories over Newsboy Brown, Pete DeGrasse, Eugene Huat, Bobby Leitham, and many others." (According to the fight record of the great Newsboy Brown, the Newsboy and Pete never fought each other.)
 
 

Montreal sports fans are to be treated to a world-championship boxing bout. Sixto Escobar, the doughty little Puerto Rican, with dynamite in his right hand, versus Pete Sanstol, "the Blond Bullet" of Norway. The date, Wednesday July 10. The place, the Forum....

[T]he Forum's first presentation, Escobar vs. Sanstol, has been recognized as a world's championship match by the Montreal Athletic Commission who are backed in their stand by President Foster, head of the National Boxing Association, strongest controlling body of boxing in the world.

When he was here last, President Foster told The Standard: "I consider Montreal the logical bantamweight capital of the world. Your city has done more than any other to foster the game among the boys at 118 pounds and it is logical that the boxer who comes to the top in your tournament should be recognized as the bantamweight champion."

Those who saw Escobar here a year ago, saw him score those sensational knock-out victories over Bobby Leitham and Baby Casanova, know what a great little bundle of fighting machinery he is. By blasting out victories over the best talent available he won recognition as the world champion....

Sanstol...has his observation about Escobar. "He never fought a fast boxer of my type, Leitham yes. Bobby was pretty speedy, but I think Bobby was slowing up about the time he met Escobar, and that surprise knock-out down at Holyoke didn't help Bobby. He was still game as they make them in the second bout I understand from my advisers, for of course I didn't see the fight....But anyway, taking them all save possibly Leitham, the fighters who Escobar has beaten were the slow flat-footed fellows who rely on their punch. I'm just as fast as I ever was.... I think I'll be too fast for Escobar in the early rounds. He won't knock me out. I'll be boxing too speedily, and in the later stages of the fight I'll have things much my own way."

Whether Sanstol's theories work out the way he figures himself or not, the little Norseman is an amazing fellow. He speaks flawless English, plays the violin as an accomplished musician. He talks four or five languages besides his own. For many years he worked with Jake Kravitz in Montreal. Everybody in the boxing game knows Kravitz, the Jewish trainer. And in a couple of months Pete was talking Yiddish fluently.

But what of Escobar?

In his last start he knocked out Johnny Bang of Boston, and before that dropped the well-rated Joey Archibald for the full count. He is apparently back in the swash-buckling form of last summer when he showed such terrific punching power for a bantam by mowing down Leitham and Baby Casanova.

"Edward C. Foster, president of the National Boxing Association, recently handed down a ruling to the effect that his three choices for bantam honors were Escobar, Sanstol and Pablo Dano," reported one Montreal newspaper. After President Foster's "ruling" Lou Salica out-decisioned Dano in Los Angeles. The New York State Athletic Commission and the National Boxing Association then ranked the world's three best bantams as being Sixto Escobar, Pete Sanstol and Lou Salica.

Pete's trainer gave him a news-clipping describing Escobar's recent defeat of Johnny Bang, which Pete pasted in one of his scrapbooks:

Escobar dropped Bang for a count of nine in the first round, put him down for another nine count in the fourth and finished him with a right to the jaw late in the fifth.

Escobar used a stinging right hand to riddle Bang's defence. The first time he unleashed it, in the opening round, it landed flush on the chin and the Boston boy sat down for the nine count while the crowd of 2,000 made ready for home.

Pete's supporters joked that he would put Escobar in a "yogi position." Click here.

Immediately trouble arose.

First, Pete's foot acted up while training. "It was first feared he had suffered a broken bone in his ankle but X-ray examination disproved this diagnosis. His foot is rapidly on the mend and Sanstol expects to resume training soon," recalled one Montreal paper. The match eventually had to be re-scheduled for August 7. (That darn foot! It just wouldn't stop haunting Pete!)

Second, Sixto Escobar demanded that the rules be changed.