'Macho' Camacho

Hector "Macho" Camacho's life outside the ring could be as sordid as his career inside it was glorious. His death was proof of that. Camacho was 50 when he died on Nov. 24, four days after he was shot in the head while sitting in a car outside a bar in Bayamn, P.R. A friend was also killed in the car, where cops found nine packets of cocaine. Growing up in New York City's Spanish Harlem, Camacho was a sometime car thief with a taste for drugs. But he was also a quick-punching, fleet-footed street fighter. Led to the Golden Gloves by a high school language teacher, he turned pro in 1980 and went on to win world titles in three weight classes. He knocked out no less a fighter than Sugar Ray Leonard and scored 79 wins against 6 losses. But after that came more run-ins with the law. The rough boy was never far from the surface of the man.