Hector Camacho, seen at an event in Miami earlier this year, was shot in the face on Tuesday night.(Parra/Getty Images)
Story by ESPN/AP
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Hector "Macho" Camacho, a Puerto Rican
boxer known for skill and flamboyance in the ring as well as for a messy
personal life and run-ins with the police, was declared dead on
Saturday, four days after being shot in the face. He was 50.
Shot
while sitting in a parked car outside a bar Tuesday with a friend in the
city of Bayamon, he was declared dead at the Centro Medico trauma
center in San Juan.
The friend, 49-year-old Adrian Mojica Moreno, died at the scene of
the shooting. Police said Mojica had nine small bags of cocaine in his
pocket and a 10th bag was found open in the car.
Originally from
Bayamon, just outside San Juan, Camacho was long regarded as a flashy if
volatile talent, a skilled boxer who was perhaps overshadowed by his
longtime foil, Mexican superstar Julio Cesar Chavez, who would beat him
in a long-awaited showdown in Las Vegas in 1992.
Camacho fought
professionally for three decades, from his humble debut against David
Brown at New York's Felt Forum in 1980 to an equally forgettable
swansong against Sal Duran in Kissimmee, Fla., in 2010.
In
between, he fought some of the biggest stars spanning two eras,
including Sugar Ray Leonard, Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya and
Roberto Duran.
Camacho pins Sugar
Ray Leonard to the ropes as referee Joe Cotez looks on during a bout in
Atlantic City on March 1, 1997. Camacho won with a knockout in the fifth
round, ending Leonard's comeback effort (Getty Images).
"This is something I've done all my life, you
know?" Camacho told The Associated Press after a workout in 2010. "A
couple years back, when I was doing it, I was still enjoying it. The
competition, to see myself perform. I know I'm at the age that some
people can't do this no more."
Camacho's family moved to New York when he was young and he grew up in Spanish Harlem, which at the time was rife with crime.
Camacho landed in jail as a teenager before turning to boxing, which
for many kids in his neighborhood provided an outlet for their
aggression.
Former featherweight champion Juan Laporte, a friend
since childhood, described Camacho as "like a little brother who was
always getting into trouble," but otherwise combined a friendly nature
with a powerful jab.
"He's a good human being, a good hearted
person," Laporte said as he waited with other friends and members of the
boxer's family outside the hospital in San Juan after the shooting. "A
lot of people think of him as a cocky person but that was his motto ...
inside he was just a kid looking for something."
Laporte lamented that Camacho never found a mentor outside the boxing ring.
"The
people around him didn't have the guts or strength to lead him in the
right direction," Laporte said. "There was no one strong enough to put a
hand on his shoulder and tell him how to do it."
Drug, alcohol
and other problems trailed Camacho after the prime of his boxing career.
He was sentenced in 2007 to seven years in prison for the burglary of a
computer store in Mississippi. While arresting him on the burglary
charge in January 2005, police also found the drug ecstasy.
A judge eventually suspended all but one year of the sentence and
gave Camacho probation. He wound up serving two weeks in jail, though,
after violating that probation.
Camacho's former wife, Amy,
obtained a restraining order against him in 1998, alleging he threatened
her and one of their children. The couple, who had two children at the
time, later divorced.
He divided his time between Puerto Rico and
Florida in recent years, appearing on Spanish-language television as
well as on a reality show called "Es Macho Time!" on YouTube.
Inside
the boxing ring, Camacho flourished. He won three Golden Gloves titles
as an amateur, and after turning pro, he quickly became a contender with
an all-action style reminiscent of other Puerto Rican fighters.
Long
promoted by Don King,
Camacho won his first world title by beating
Rafael Limon in a super-featherweight bout in Puerto Rico on Aug. 7,
1983. He moved up in weight two years later to capture a lightweight
title by defeating Jose Luis Ramirez, and successfully defended the belt
against fellow countryman Edwin Rosario.
The Rosario fight, in
which the victorious Camacho still took a savage beating, persuaded him
to scale back his ultra-aggressive style in favor of a more cerebral,
defensive approach.
The change in style was a big reason that
Camacho, at the time 38-0, lost a close split decision to Greg Haugen at
Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in 1991.
Camacho won the rematch to
set up his signature fight against Chavez, this time at the Thomas &
Mack Center in Las Vegas. Camacho was roundly criticized for his lack
of action, and the Mexican champion won a lopsided unanimous decision to
retain the lightweight title.
It was at that point that Camacho
became the name opponent for other rising contenders, rather than the
headliner fighting for his own glory.
He lost a unanimous decision
to another young Puerto Rican fighter, Trinidad, and was soundly
defeated by De La Hoya. In 1997, Camacho ended Leonard's final comeback
with a fifth-round knockout. It was Camacho's last big victory even
though he boxed for another decade.
"Hector was a fighter who
brought a lot of excitement to boxing," said Ed Brophy, executive
director of International the Boxing Hall of Fame. "He was a good
champion. Roberto Duran is kind of in a class of his own, but Hector
surely was an exciting fighter that gave his all to the sport."
Camacho lands a
punch to his opponent, Roberto Duran, during their IBC middleweight
fight in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1996. Camacho won in a 12-round
decision.
The
fighter's last title bout came in 1997 against welterweight champion
Oscar De La Hoya, who won by unanimous decision.
Camacho's last fight
was his defeat by Duran in May 2010. He had a career record of 79-6-3.
_____________________________________________________________
Story below by CNN
(CNN) -- Famed boxer Hector Camacho died after he
was taken off life support early Saturday, a hospital spokeswoman in
Puerto Rico told CNN.
A passing gunman on Tuesday shot Camacho, who was in a car in front of a bar in his hometown of Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
He was declared clinically brain dead on Thursday and placed on life support.
Camacho suffered a heart
attack and had been taken off life support, said Wilmelis Marquez,
spokeswoman for the Rio Piedras Medical Center.
He was pronounced dead at 1:45 a.m., she said.
She said his organs were not healthy enough to be donated.
Camacho, a former
lightweight and junior lightweight champion, was in the passenger seat
of the car, police said. The driver was shot twice and killed, they
said.
The suspects are two men
who are believed to have been traveling in a gray vehicle, said Lt.
Wilfredo Rivera of Cataño Police. They escaped after a shootout with
police at a residential complex, WAPA TV reported.
During his career,
Camacho, 50, awed fans with his quick hands and ring antics, developing a
reputation for flamboyance. He also battled a series of legal issues
that stemmed from drugs and other problems.
A southpaw, Camacho fought professionally for more than 25 years and last stepped into the ring in 2010.
He had a career record of 79 wins, six losses and three draws.
Larry Hagman, best known for playing Dallas villain J.R. Ewing and Captain Anthony Nelson in I Dream of Jeannie, died Friday morning from complications stemming from his recent battle with cancer. Hagman was 81 years old.
