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Former boxing champ Héctor 'Macho' Camacho on life support after gun shot

By April MacIntyre Nov 21, 2012, 18:02 GMT

A staple of HBO Boxing events, former boxing champ Héctor 'Macho' Camacho was shot in in Puerto Rico Tueday night and is listed as critical and on life support in hospital care.

CNN reports that Camacho, 50, who had a career record of 79-6-3, was outside a bar in a parked Ford Mustang with a friend when he was shot in the face. The friend, 49-year-old Adrian Mojica Moreno, was killed.

Camacho was born in Puerto Rico, but grew up in Spanish Harlem (NYC). His son, Héctor Camacho Jr., is also a professional boxer.

The news is not good, as doctors and his family expected to decide whether to remove the former boxing champion from life support.

"He's battling minute to minute. This is the most important fight of his life," Dr. Ernesto Torres, director of the Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan told The Associated Press outside the hospital in the Puerto Rican capital.

Camacho's mother is expected to arrive from New York, to make that heartbreaking decision to remove him from life support, said Ismael Leandry, a longtime friend and former manager who was also at the hospital, reported the AP.

In his career as a boxer, Camacho has fought against Felix Trinidad, Julio Cesar Chavez and Sugar Ray Leonard. Camacho knocked out Leonard in 1997.

Camacho has a career record of 79-6-3.