25 Nov 2012

US boxer Hector 'Macho' Camacho dies

7:12 am on 25 November 2012

The three-time world boxing champion Hector "Macho" Camacho has died, four days after he was shot in the face in a drive-by shooting.

He was 50.

Camacho was pronounced dead after being taken off life support following a second heart attack.

Puerto Rico officials are planning a public wake for the boxer in San Juan.

The former US boxing champ had been declared brain dead on Friday after he was shot on Wednesday while sitting in a car with a friend outside a liquor store in the San Juan suburb of Bayamon, Camacho's birthplace.

Two gunmen opened fire on the car, killing the driver, Mojica Moreno, and hitting Camacho in the jaw. The bullet fractured two vertebrae and lodged in his shoulder, damaging the arteries that carried blood to the brain.

Police found nine small bags of cocaine in the driver's pockets and one open in the car.

The shooting is under investigation and no arrests have been made.

Camacho, a left-handed fighter who grew up in New York's Spanish Harlem neighborhood, had a record of 79-6-3 with 38 knockouts. His three-decade career featured fights with a "who's who" of boxing and a flamboyant style that included entering the ring in an outfit based on the Puerto Rican flag.