Who Did It? Revisiting Unsolved Murder of Hector Macho Camacho A Decade Later
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Hector “Macho” Camacho was an unsolved personality when he was alive. The murder of Hector “Macho” Camacho remains an unsolved mystery with no arrests made. Camacho and childhood friend Adrian Mojica Moreno, along with ten bags of cocaine, were shot to death in a car outside a bar in a strip mall in Bayamon, Puerto Rico on November 20, 2012. Camacho, 50, hoping to resume the boxing career in which he was a multi division world champion, was associating with members of Puerto Rico’s drug underworld when he was assassinated.
Either his friend in the car with the ten bags of coke, one which was open, was the target and Macho Man was killed unintentionally, or they were both killed intentionally. In any case, the senselessness of it all only verified Macho, who lived by his flashy costumes and flamboyant lifestyle, went the explosive way he came. His numerous girlfriends were fighting with each other at the funeral over the coffin, which could only happen over a crazy character like Hector, who remains as misunderstood in life as he was in death.
Drugs, drunk, women, violence, the pride and hero of Spanish Harlem had a loud personality, one which could not be controlled by anybody, flashy cars and jewelry ongoing as part of Macho Man’s personality show. Hector Camacho was the Showtime of boxing before there was a Showtime and a Showtime Shawn Porter. Hector Camacho was flash and flamboyance before there was Great Britain’s Nassem Hamed. Hector brought it, high or not, and everybody got a show and nobody felt cheated when Hector fought. Hector Camacho was the Liberace of boxing.
Every once and awhile, this reporter reflects on the different angles of the career and personality of the Macho Man. Books will be written, television specials will examine old video footage. Like Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali, Macho Camacho is one of those crazy characters who will never be forgotten. Early in his career, this reporter had the privilege of seeing Hector Camacho fight live in upstate New York before anybody knew who he was. Camacho was 18 years old by the numbers, but looked no more than 15 or 16 years old, beating the blazes out of 0-6 veteran opponent Kato Ali until he stopped him in the seventh round in April 1981. 96-4 as an amateur, 79-6-3 as a pro. It seems unconscionable, going on ten years after the fact, no suspects have been identified despite the presence of forensic evidence in the double murder case. Nobody has any idea who committed the crime, or why. The drugs were not stolen from the car. Camacho himself had no known enemies. Camacho’s murder remains one of boxing’s unsolved mysteries.
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