The video posted on Instagram or TikTok accounts and uploaded 10 days ago lasts two minutes. It has since been viewed more than 2.5 million times. A man films himself rescuing a man lying, semi-unconscious, on the sidewalk, resembling a homeless person. He is injured, probably hit. “I’m a boxer, a gypsy,” he stammers.
The man filming offers him help. He goes to the nearest pharmacy, puts alcohol and ointment on the homeless man’s arcade wound then offers to go buy him food, a sous vide paella, still filming himself.
The video was filmed in Nice. “It comes from my mother, she taught me to always help. I took over from him. It’s a habit for me to help as many people as possible. I’m alone and I check to see if they’re okay, I offer them something to eat. This is what I do every day” pleads the man with the camera whose name is Lorenzo, better known on the networks as “the Neapolitan” (600,000 followers on TikTok, 50,000 on Instagram) where he appears almost daily helping poor people.
After these two minutes, the vagabond gives his identity: Julien Lorcy. Without going any further, he presents himself as the former world boxing champion, holder of the WBA world lightweight belt between 1999 and 2001, one of the greatest French champions of this sport.
Except that it is not Julien Lorcy, now 53 years old. The boxer tells us this without needing to convince us. The person in the video only vaguely resembles him. “My mom called me saying: Julien, they say you were homeless! I answered him: Mom, you can see that it’s not my head. Friends called me to tell me you are homeless, come home. The good part is that it allows me to see that there are people who give me consideration, and that’s comforting.”
He continues: “I tell everyone: it’s not me ! I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs. And if I needed anything, my Traveler community wouldn’t leave me on the streets.”
The former boxer does not intend for things to stop there. A few days ago, he published on X the receipt for a complaint filed for fraud and false reporting. “I filed a complaint against the influencer, not against the homeless person,” he explains. This is fraud, identity theft. I have confidence in justice and it will be the one to decide, I am not asking for more. I hope it will be exemplary because I don’t want this kind of mishap to happen to others or to my friends. »
The author of the video swears that there is “no staging”
The quarter-finalist of the Games in Barcelona in 1992 insists: “It’s all a set-up. The guy has been briefed. You will say that your name is Julien Lorcy. A homeless person in poverty, you give him 50 euros, he says his name is Brad Pitt. This is the problem with this new generation which is ready to do anything for buzz about people’s misery. It’s deplorable. “.
An assertion that “the Neapolitan” forcefully refutes. “I swear on the heads of my people and before God that there is no staging,” he proclaims. I came across this homeless person like I meet every day. I had never seen him and perhaps never will again. He got me too. He told me his name was Julien Lorcy and I believed him. He looked a bit like him, he spoke like him, a bit gypsy, he told me he came from Paris. Furthermore, I had no reason to wish harm to Mr. Lorcy. I remember watching him when he was boxing. I should have checked if it was really him. I was naive. »
“Unhealthy voyeurism”
Since these few images were posted online, the former European featherweight and lightweight champion has received support from all sides. “Jean-Marc Mormeck is outraged. He says: We have no right to do identity theft like that. And at the same time, the guy had the nerve to post four photos of me. So he found out. He looked at my Wikipedia page, he saw that I was a boxer, a world champion, even that I was a gypsy from the Yenish community. It’s a set-up. »
Pierre Lorcy, his big brother who is also a boxer, continues: “It’s unhealthy voyeurism. When I give 5 euros to someone at a red light, I don’t brag about it while filming myself. Nobody does it, at least the influencers.”
To which “the Neapolitan” responds. “If I don’t film, I don’t have funding. I don’t have the money to help all these people. By filming, I earn some and I think that the money from TikTok is well used here to do good. The principle is that people make donations to a fund. With donations, I buy food, for example. I make my video and then I make money on it. It’s my livelihood. »
“If he wants to go to court, let’s go”
Why the name of Julien Lorcy, who retired from sports almost 20 years ago, came out of the mouth of this homeless man on the other side of France remains a mystery? “I’m fine, I’m strong,” said the real Lorcy. I get through it even if it has consequences on my life, my work. I have a boxing gym in Claye-Souilly (77) and I plan to set up ones everywhere. I have contacts for future business, a meeting I want to organize in the spring. It harms my reputation… It hurts my two youngest children. If this happened to vulnerable people, it could have dramatic consequences. We must not let this kind of thing go unnoticed.”
For the moment, Lorenzo refuses to remove the controversial video from his networks. “I would have done it willingly if Mr. Lorcy had contacted me before filing a complaint. We would have discussed. But he went to the police station less than 24 hours after the broadcast. I didn’t like it. If he wants to go to court, let’s go. I have nothing to reproach myself for and I had no intention of hurting anyone.”
