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Hector "Macho" Camacho (file photo). Stephen Chernin/AP/Press Association Images
RIP

Former world champion Hector Camacho dead at 50

The boxer had won world titles at junior-lightweight and junior-welterweight over the course of his career.

BOXING GREAT HECTOR ‘Macho’ Camacho has died in Puerto Rico, four days after being shot in the jaw in a Bayamon car park.

Camacho was pronounced brain dead on Thursday, and his doctors at the Centro Medico de Rio Piedras disconnected the 50-year-old’s life support systems on Saturday at his family’s instruction.

At his peak, Camacho was one of the most electrifying boxers of the 1980s, and he won world titles at junior-lightweight, lightweight and junior-welterweight.

His last challenge for a meaningful world title came in 1997, when Camacho suffered a brutal 12-round decision loss to Oscar De La Hoya for the WBC welterweight title, absorbing massive punishment in the process.

As well as De La Hoya, Camacho fought such big names as Julio Cesar Chavez, Sugar Ray Leonard,

Felix Trinidad, Roberto Duran, Ray Mancini, Vinny Pazienza, Jose Luis Ramirez and Greg Haugen.

A lightning fast, hard-punching phenomenon in his younger days, Camacho adopted a more conservative approach to his boxing after a razor-thin points victory over his fellow Puerto Rican Edwin Rosario in a 1986 world lightweight title fight.

Camacho’s family moved to New York’s Spanish Harlem area from Puerto Rico when he was a child, and he was frequently in trouble before discovering boxing.

Camacho also battled drug and alcohol problems throughout his career, and in 2005 was convicted of drug possession and theft.

He was charged in the US with child abuse earlier this year for allegedly assaulting his teenage son.

Another son, Hector Camacho Jr, is also a professional boxer, who enjoyed moderate success and continues to fight today at age 34.

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