Sad news—boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho, 50, died today after being taken off life support. Camacho was shot in the face Tuesday in his native Bayamon, Puerto Rico. He had been sitting in a parked car with friend Adrian Mojica Moreno, 49, who was also shot and died at the scene. Camacho was declared brain dead at a San Juan hospital on Thursday, though his mother waited for his three sons to arrive from the mainland United States to say goodbye before authorizing removal from life support.
Camacho, who was born in Puerto Rico but grew up in Manhattan's Spanish Harlem, began his career in 1980 with a bout against David Brown at the Felt Forum. He lost that match, but he worked his way through the '90s and '00s, winning three Golden Gloves as an amateur and going head to head with big names like Sugar Ray Leonard (who he famously knocked out in 1997), Oscar De La Hoya and nemesis Julio Cesar Chavez. Camacho fought his last match in 2010 against Sal Duran, and was defeated.
Camacho was also known for his drug, alcohol and legal woes. His ex-wife filed a restraining order against in in 1998, alleging domestic abuse, and Camacho was sentenced to seven years in prison for burglary in 2007. He was given probation, which he subsequently violated, eventually serving two weeks in jail. According to police reports from Tuesday's shooting, Moreno had a number of bags of cocaine with him in the car with Camacho. "The people around him didn't have the guts or strength to lead him in the right direction," friend and former featherweight champion Juan Laporte said of Camacho. "There was no one strong enough to put a hand on his shoulder and tell him how to do it." His sisters plan to have him buried in New York; meanwhile, check out these videos of Camacho boxing in his heyday.
