Boxing: Puerto Ricans say goodbye to Camacho

In this July 14, 2001 file photo, boxing champ Hector “Macho” Camacho celebrates after defeating Roberto Duran in their super middleweight National Boxing Association championship fight in Denver.Camacho, a boxer known for skill and flamboyance in the ring, as well as for a messy personal life and run-ins with the police, has died, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012, after being taken off life support. He was 50. AP

SAN JUAN – Hundreds of Puerto Ricans filed into a sports arena Tuesday to pay their last respects to Hector “Macho” Camacho, with fellow ex-boxers calling him a source of great pride for their island territory.

Camacho, who was 50, died Saturday after doctors disconnected him from a respirator which had been keeping him alive since he was shot in the face last Tuesday in a still unexplained attack as he sat in a car outside a liquor store.

A longtime friend who was with him died at the scene of the shooting.

Tuesday’s wake was attended by government officials and a host of people from the boxing world — fight officials as well as more than 20 former world champions.

Camacho was one of the most colorful boxers of the 1980s, winning world titles at super lightweight, lightweight and light welterweight.

“Each and every one of us, the world champions, feel proud of what Camacho did for boxing, because not only was he was one of the best fighters ever to come from this island, but also of the world’s best,” said Puerto Rican boxing great Felix “Tito” Trinidad.