How much is Hector Camacho worth?
| Net Worth: | $150 thousand |
|---|---|
| Profession: | Professional Boxer |
| Date of Birth: | May 24, 1962 |
| Country: | Puerto Rico |
| Height: | 1.69 m |
About Hector Camacho
The World Boxing Council (WBC) declared the World Junior Lightweight Championship vacant when champion Bobby Chacón declined to defend his belt against Camacho in Puerto Rico. The champion title was vacated after Rafael Limón lost to Chacon, therefore he challenged Camacho for it. Camacho boxed a previous world champion for the first time, and he knocked him down three times in the fifth round before the referee called it off.
Camacho was born to Héctor Luis Camacho Sr. and Maria Matas in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. His younger brother Felix and older sisters Raquel, Estrella, and Esperanza made him the second youngest of five kids. His parents divorced when he was three years old, and his mother relocated the family to New York City with the kids. They were residents of the Spanish Harlem James Weldon Johnson Housing Project.
Camacho had a successful amateur career and a rapid ascent in the professional ranks, first in the featherweight and later in the junior-lightweight divisions. He was so sure of himself that he challenged the world champions of the featherweight division, Salvador Sánchez and Eusebio Pedroza. Unfortunately for Camacho, Sánchez passed away while he was still rising through the ranks. Irleis Cubanito Perez, Melvin Paul, John Montes, and Refugio Rojas were all knocked out by him before he lost the fight in the junior-lightweight class. T
Camacho boxed Roque Montoya to a twelve-round decision and won the lightweight division of the United States Boxing Association. The next bout, which was shown on Home Box Office (HBO), he won, making him a two-time world champion. Camacho won the WBC world Lightweight title with a victory over the defending champion, the Mexican José Luis Ramirez, in Las Vegas. Camacho knocked Ramirez out in the third round and went on to win the bout via unanimous decision after twelve rounds.
He upped his weight class and moved on to more advanced competition. After a few bouts in that region, he challenged former world lightweight champion Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, who was 29-3 with 23 knockouts at the time, for the vacant WBO Light Welterweight title. Camacho, the more in-shape of the two, took home the victory after twelve rounds of intense competition. He became one of only a handful of boxers in history to win titles in three different weight classes.
Camacho faced the dangerous Mexican champion Julio César Chávez in Las Vegas in 1992. Chávez was 81-0 at the time. Notable fights for Camacho since 1992 include two wins (both by points) over Roberto Durán (one in Atlantic City, the other in Denver). He defeated Sugar Ray Leonard via fifth-round technical knockout in 1997. Leonard, at age 41, retired for good following this defeat, his third comeback effort since losing to Terry Norris in 1991.
Camacho competed against Craig Houk on December 5, 2003. The bout itself was peculiar, since Houk kept his back to Camacho the entire time. Camacho was arrested in Gulfport, Mississippi on January 6, 2005 for allegedly trying to rob an electronics store while also in possession of ecstasy.
He admitted to being intoxicated during the break-in when he entered a guilty plea in 2007. Camacho was initially given a 7-year prison term, but the judge later postponed all but one year of that sentence in exchange for probation. After breaking his probation, he went to prison for two weeks. On July 18, 2008, Camacho faced Perry Ballard for the Middleweight Championship of the World Boxing Empire.
Camacho was attacked on February 12, 2011, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, near the Luis Lloréns Torres housing project. Camacho claimed he and his friend were on their way to a local bar when two males approached their car (a 2005 BMW X5) and attempted to carjack them. They fired three shots at his vehicle as he tried to flee. Since “everybody loves me,” he reasoned, he didn’t think the guys would have figured out who he was. However, he did not report the incident to authorities.
While seated in a car on Highway 167 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico on November 20th, 2012 at approximately 7 p.m. AST, Camacho was shot once in the jaw. Amacho passed away four days after his diagnosis of clinical brain death; his mother had requested that life support be turned off. Camacho’s mother requested that his body be moved from Santurce, where he had been lying in repose, to New York City, where he would be buried.
