This NABF lightweight championship fight between Hector Macho Camacho and Roque Montoya was a really good fight…..plus I just love to watch that lil Puerta Rican “Macho” Camacho in the ring….and having Latin blood in me….I always like looking at Hector….cuz he could’ve left his shoes under my bed at night…..but in truth, Hector Macho Camacho was one hell of a fighter with incredibly fast hands and feet…..who ended his career 77 wins 6 losses and 3 draws over a 30 year professional boxing career…..which provides me with the necessary evidence to call Camacho a boxing legend during the golden age of boxing. I am telling you the truth, there were so many super boxers from 1964 to 1995….the golden age of boxing….that a fighter light Hector Camacho gets overlooked.
After a stellar amateur career, Camacho began a quick rise through the professional rankings….first in the featherweight and then in the junior-lightweight division. He was so confident that he claimed he could beat then world featherweight champions Salvador Sánchez and Eusebio Pedroza (both golden age super greats). In the junior-lightweight division….he defeated the top contenders Irleis Cubanito Perez, Melvin Paul, John Montes, and Refugio Rojas. When the World junior lightweight champion, Bobby Chacón….refused to go to Puerto Rico to defend his title against Camacho….the World Boxing Council (WBC) declared the world championship vacant….that is when Rafael “Bazooka” Limón….who had been defeated and lost the championship to Chacon….fought him for the vacant title. It was the first time Camacho was in a ring with a former world champion; he scored knockdowns on Limón in the first and third rounds before the referee stopped the fight in the fifth round. Camacho also fought his first defense in San Juan when he met Rafael Solis, a fellow Puerto Rican. Camacho got tested in this fight for the first time….and was shaken in round three by a Solis uppercut. He knocked out Solis with a right to the chin in round five, and retained the title.
Moving up to lightweight….Camacho won the United States Boxing Association title against Roque Montoya with a twelve-round decision….which you need to watch by clicking video below…..cuz it is a good fight. His victory in the next fight….which was broadcast on Home Box Office (HBO)….made him a two-time world champion…which propelled Macho’s marketability. Camacho beat the Mexican defending world champion, José Luis Ramírez in Las Vegas to win the WBC world lightweight championship….as Camacho dropped Ramirez in round three and won the fight by a unanimous twelve-round decision.
The two other reigning world champions in his division at that time, Livingstone Bramble and Jimmy Paul, were reluctant to unify the crown with Camacho….instead, he beat Freddie Roach before his next fight of importance came along, ten months after beating Ramírez….when he met Edwin Rosario on June 13, 1986, at Madison Square Garden in New York in a bout also broadcast on HBO. The fight was notable for the shifts of dominance between the men. Camacho dominated rounds one to four….but had to hang on in rounds five, six and seven when he felt Rosario’s power. He came back to take rounds eight and nine, but Rosario came back to take the last three rounds. It was a close fight, but Camacho retained the title by a split decision of the judges. Camacho then retained his title against Cornelius Boza Edwards, a former world junior lightweight champion in Miami in a unanimous decision….after dropping the former world jr. lightweight champion in the first round.
This is just a portion of the story of Hector “Macho” Camacho…..as I will cover his latter years in professional boxing…..but suffice to say…..this man knew his way within the 4 x corner-posts…..as evidenced by a 30 year career facing the likes of Roberto Duran, Felix Trinadad, Sugar Ray Leonard, Julio Cesar Chavez, Edwin Rosario, Oscar de la Hoya, Howard Davis, Jr., Cornelius Boza Edwards, Jose Luis Rameriz, Rafael “Bazooka” Limon and many more…..so, Macho is well worth the watch.
