MIAMI: Former three time world boxing champion Hector “Macho” Camacho was seriously injured Tuesday night after being shot in the neck in Puerto Rico, local media reported.
Camacho, 50, was being driven in a car when he was hit in the head by gunshot from another vehicle around 7:00 pm local time, the Primera Hora de Puerto Rico newspaper reported on its website.
Ernesto Torres, director of the Centro Medico de Rio Piedras, was cautious about Camacho’s chances of survival, saying that a bullet had fractured two bones in his neck.
“It appears the bullet struck a bone and was deflected without going into the brain,” Torres told the newspaper. An earlier report said a single bullet struck the left side of Camacho’s jaw.
The paper showed a picture of the ex-boxer on a hospital gurney, with an oxygen mask and tubes, covered by blood-soaked covers. It said he was unconscious.
Camacho was one of the most colorful boxers of the 1980s.
He has a career record of 79-6-3 with 38 knockouts, and over his career he took on all comers, including big names like Roberto Duran, Oscar De La Hoya, Julio Cesar Chavez, Sugar Ray Leonard, Felix Trinidad, Ray Mancini, and Greg Haugen.
Earlier this year, US police charged Camacho with child abuse for allegedly slamming his son into a floor at his ex-wife’s home in Florida.
Camacho was accused of hitting and stomping on his son, police documents say.
The incident took place on March 22, 2011, allegedly over money Camacho apparently believed was missing at his ex-wife’s home, the documents show.
The boxer, originally from Puerto Rico, in recent years has made appearances on two reality television programs, “Mira Quien Baila” (“Look Who is Dancing”) and “Es Macho Time.” — AFP