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Saturday, Nov 24, 2012 6:46 AM UTC

End nears for shot boxer Hector ‘Macho’ Camacho

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Topics: From the Wires,

End nears for shot boxer Hector 'Macho' CamachoMaria Matias, center, mother of former world boxing champion Hector "Macho" Camacho, and her grandson Hector Jr. walk together after holding a news conference at Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Friday, Nov. 23, 2012. Camacho, who has been unconscious since he was shot in the face last Tuesday and declared brain dead by doctors, will be taken off life support on Saturday, his mother said in the brief news conference, a decision that her grandson, Hector Jr. opposes. (AP Photo/Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo)(Credit: AP)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The mother of Hector “Macho” Camacho says she has decided to have doctors cut off life support for the former world champion boxer Saturday once three more of his sons get a last chance to see him.

Though opposed by Camacho’s eldest son, Maria Matias, the boxer’s mother, said she had decided it was time for doctors to disconnect the machines that have kept him alive since he was shot in the face earlier in the week.

“I lost my son three days ago. He’s alive only because of a machine,” Matias said. “My son is not alive. My son is only alive for the people who love him,” she added.

She said at a news conference Friday night that she was waiting only for Camacho’s three other sons, who were expected to arrive from the U.S. mainland early Saturday. “Until they arrive, we will not disconnect the machine,” Matias said.

Another news conference was scheduled for Saturday morning at Centro Medico, the main trauma center for San Juan.

The former champion’s mother has the final say in the matter, but his eldest son, Hector Camacho Jr., said he wanted to keep his father alive.

“He’s going to fight until the end. My father is a boxer,” the son said.

Although doctors had said Camacho was clinically brain dead from a shooting Tuesday night in his hometown of Bayamon, relatives and friends told The Associated Press they were still wrestling with the idea of removing him from life support.

“It is a very difficult decision, a very delicate decision,” former pro boxer Victor “Luvi” Callejas, a longtime friend, said in a phone interview. “The last thing we lose is hope and faith. If there is still hope and faith, why not wait a little more?”

Aida Camacho, one of the boxer’s aunts, said in an interview that the family could decide by late Friday whether to donate his organs.

As some relatives and friends continued to pray for a miracle, condolences flowed in for Camacho’s family and preparations were being made for memorials and a funeral Mass.

Gov. Luis Fortuno lamented what he called a sudden loss. “‘Macho’ will always be remembered for his spontaneity and charisma in and out of the ring,” he said.

Also offering condolences was governor-elect Alejandro Garcia Padilla, who defeated Fortuno in November.

“The life of Macho Camacho, like other great athletes of ours, united the country,” he said. “We celebrated his triumphs in the streets and we applauded him with noble sportsmanship when he didn’t prevail.”

Camacho was shot as he sat in a car with a friend, 49-year-old Adrian Mojica Moreno, who was killed in the attack. Police spokesman Alex Diaz said officers found nine small bags of cocaine in the friend’s pocket and a 10th bag open inside the car.

Police reported no arrests and said investigators continued to look for potential witnesses. Capt. Rafael Rosa told reporters Friday that they were following several leads, but declined to say whether police had identified any suspects. He said very few witnesses were cooperating.

Hector Camacho Jr. decried the violence that grips Puerto Rico, a U.S. island territory of nearly 4 million people that reported a record 1,117 homicides last year.

“Death, jail, drugs, killings,” he said. “That’s what the streets are now.”

Camacho’s sisters have said they would like to fly Camacho’s body to New York and bury him there. Camacho grew up mostly in Harlem, earning the nickname the “Harlem Heckler.”

He won super lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight world titles in the 1980s and fought high-profile bouts against Felix Trinidad, Julio Cesar Chavez and Sugar Ray Leonard while compiling a career record of 79-6-3. He knocked out Leonard in 1997, ending the former champ’s final comeback attempt.

Camacho battled drug, alcohol and other problems throughout his life. He was sentenced in 2007 to seven years in prison on burglary charges, but a judge eventually suspended all but one year of the sentence and gave Camacho probation. He wound up serving two weeks in jail after violating that probation. A wife also filed domestic abuse complaints against him twice before their divorce.

More Danica Coto.

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