Boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho pronounced dead after gunshot to head

Hector Camacho celebrates after defeating Roberto Duran at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, N.J., in this July 22, 1996 file photo. / Al Bello/Getty Images

Last Updated 9:03 a.m. ET

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, Florida, 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.

"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 regularly 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.

• no previous page
• next

1/2

[Jayuyano1]

todo el mundo tiene su opinion sobre la vida personar de hector macho camacho pero eso ya no debe importale a nadie vamos a recordarlo por lo bueno que iso en este mundo para mucha hente en puerto rico y en nuevayork por eso devemos darle un pocito mas de respeto no simplemente a sumombre pero tambien asu madre hijos i seres queridos i con esto le doy mi respeto a una leyenda el hector macho camacho descanse en paz

[Jayuyano1]

todo el mundo tiene su opinion sobre la vida personar de hector macho camacho pero eso ya no debe importale a nadie vamos a recordarlo por lo bueno que iso en este mundo para mucha hente en puerto rico y en nuevayork por eso devemos darle un pocito mas de respeto no simplemente a sumombre pero tambien asu madre hijos i seres queridos i con esto le doy mi respeto a una leyenda el hector macho camacho descanse en paz

[aubfmet]

He can do more for everyone than he did for boxing if he helps put a stop to drugs.

[IPonUall2]

It's said that if you can't say something nice about a person, say nothing.
Reading that cocaine was involved, I'll just say sorry he died.

[tryingtodogoodwork]

I came to know Hector well while writing about him for "Sport" Magazine. I liked him. He had a big heart, was generous with family, friends and strangers -- and he was surprisingly, deeply innocent in an odd way. He was, indeed, the trickstering younger brother who was always in trouble.

I'll miss him, as will nearly everyone in Puerto Rico and very many people here in the U.S.

[misscougar1]

R.I.P. Hector my generational brother. We love you, but GOD loves you most!!

[oregonphil]

Its great to see another druggie off the streets. God bless his sole

[BruceHillberry]

You're an ass!