Rosario clipped him with another left hook and a right hand down the middle. With 50 seconds remaining, the stratagem paid off. In the 11th round, Rosario gave up any pretense of defense, walking straight forward and attempting to pressure Camacho into a mistake. It was that conservative plan, against Rosario's bombs-away approach, that probably tilted the crowd toward Rosario. Camacho's stick-and-move tactics impressed the judges.But for a fighter nicknamed ''Macho,'' the winner fought a careful and strategic fight, clearly intent on not going toe-to-toe with Rosario. "The kid can fight."Īs Camacho was busy winning the fight, however, he was losing the crowd in turn:īetween these two perilous rounds, Camacho managed to outbox Rosario, repeatedly beating him to the punch as he circled (Rosario). "You got to give it to Camacho," "Sugar" Ray Leonard said on the HBO broadcast. He controlled the middle of the fight with fast feet, a steady jab and a couple of low blows that took the fight out of Rosario, who seemed to have spent himself in the fifth trying to batter Camacho senseless. Rosario's failure to finish emboldened Camacho. Those fans would have to live with the disappointment. And some of those bums I gave free tickets to came to see me get knocked out," Camacho told the newspaper. "I spent $7,800 on tickets that I gave away. But Rosario was closer to the ideal warrior that fans from the island embraced, and there was something a little too Hollywood about Camacho, even then, for many fans' tastes.Ĭamacho, training out of Florida, felt the tension a bit, letting his facade of indifference slip to The New York Times: Camacho was one of the sport's top rising stars and had grown up in New York's Spanish Harlem. The partisan Puerto Rican crowd was split down the middle. Wham! Damn! I fought a war and I can tell you right now, Hector Camacho don't like no damn wars." "I say, Damn, it doesn't hurt, but it sure feels funny. Wham! Wham!" Camacho told Sports Illustrated after the fight. But somehow, some way, Camacho weathered the storm and earned his nickname under fire. Two minutes remained in the round, a seemingly impossible amount of time for a staggered champion. Rosario swarmed to the body, but especially to the head, like a man possessed. In the fifth round, a left hook seemed to startle Camacho, who for the first time in his professional career was in real trouble. A far cry from the defensive fighter he would become, some say as the result of this fight, Camacho went to war with Rosario in the early going-and paid the price. On June 13, 1986, what followed in the ring was nearly as brutal at times, the two men battling for personal and national pride. In Renaissance France, a duel to the death might have followed that kind of slight. To ensure his opponent would open his gift, Camacho had the box addressed as if it had come from the Governor of Puerto Rico. He topped all his previous tomfoolery on the day of the fight, buying a pair of lacy red panties and having them, and his autograph, sent to Rosario's room. The "Macho Man," quickly becoming one of boxing's great characters, just laughed. Later, as the two made a public appearance together to "KO Crack," Camacho again tossed paper in Rosario's face. Despite being just 23, he carried himself with the gravitas of a much older man, his Tom Selleck-style mustache making him look like an aged veteran, not a young man on the rise, a young man not amused by Camacho's pre-fight hijinks.Ĭamacho would later say that Rosario fought like a man with a grudge, and if true, who could possibly blame him? Before the fight, Camacho waged a psychological war with his fellow Puerto Rican, calling him a girl and throwing a napkin in his face at a press conference. Rosario, in turn, was a taciturn and serious professional. Sporting a tiny spit curl in front and a tiny rattail in back, Camacho danced and strutted his way to fame, looking every bit the cast member of Grease. Although the crowd was a disappointing 10,615, it was 10,615 people who cared about this fight more than anything else in the world.Ĭamacho was brash, young and full of himself.
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