Hector “Macho” Camacho died Saturday morning after being shot on Tuesday night in Puerto Rico. The famous boxer was 50.
"Hector Camacho, a boxer known for his lightning-quick hands and flamboyant personality who emerged from a delinquent childhood in New York's Spanish Harlem to become a world champion in three weight classes, died Saturday in San Juan, P.R., four days after after being shot while sitting in a parked car," said the New York Times.
Dr. Ernesto Torres with the Centro Medico trauma center in Puerto Rico declared the death Saturday morning. According to Torres, Camacho suffered a heart attack shortly after being taken off life support. Friday, Camacho was declared brain dead, and his mother had announced she would be taking her son off life support after his sons arrived to see their father.
"We have done everything we could," Torres told ESPN Friday. "We have to tell the people of Puerto Rico and the entire world that Macho Camacho has died — he is brain dead."
Camacho's son said the decision to take his father off life support was "up to God."
"Papi was a great fighter, a warrior and now he is fighting for his life, and we have to let him fight until the end," Hector Camacho Jr. told ESPN.
Camacho rose through the ranks of boxing in the 1980s and 1990s.
"Fighting in bouts sanctioned by professional boxing's myriad organizing bodies, Camacho, who was widely known as Macho Camacho, won titles as a super featherweight , a lightweight and a junior welterweight ," said the New York Times. "In his last title bout, at age 35 in 1997, he fought at 147 pounds and lost to the welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya."
Camacho was born May 24, 1962, in Puerto Rico and moved to New York City with his mother when he was 3. He began boxing as a teenager and quickly gained the interest of many high-profile boxers.
"Not only quick, but accurate," boxer Sugar Ray Leonard said in 1982 after watching Camacho, according to the NY Times. "I told him that people are always asking who's going to take my place. I told him he could."
Camacho was divorced and is survived by his mom, siblings, four sons and two grandsons.