Hector ‘Machito’ Camacho jr has for the first time made it publicly clear that he is “coming to Guyana to win by all means” and that his opponent, ‘Deadly’ Denny Dalton “should be prepared for an all out war and must be ready to fight”. Dalton and Camacho will square off on June 5 at the Princess Hotel and Casino at Providence for the vacant  World Boxing Federation (WBF) Intercontinental Middleweight title on the Bris ‘O’ Promotions card entitled ‘Deadly Encounters’.
The 31 year old Camacho, whose father was one of the world’s best light middle fighters, spoke exclusively with Chronicle Sport from his USA location yesterday and spoke highly of his return to the boxing ring after a hiatus of eight months.
“First of all I want to thank you (the media) for showing such great interest in me for this fight. It (this fight) means a lot to me because I’m making a comeback into the sport and I want to win as many fans as possible in Guyana. I’m ready to give the people (Guyanese) something that they have never seen before” boasted the younger Camacho.
‘Machito’ as he is also known, holds a ring record of 51 wins from 56 fights, 28 of which he won via the TKO route, has one draw and three losses.
His last fight was on October 30th in 2009 against former world champion Luis Ramon Campas where he gained a split decision win over the 38 year-old Mexican.
Asked what has inspired him to step back into the ring again, Camacho said “I think I have a lot to offer the sport of boxing. I’m 31 and that’s a pretty young age still, I see some fighters who I know I’m way better than making it big, winning world titles and fighting on HBO and so on and I feel I should be there, so that makes this fight even more important to me because I need to show the world that I still got it, I still got what it takes to be at the top of the game”
Camacho admits that he knows little or nothing at all about Dalton who has won 16 of his 25 fights and but has eight loses and a draw to his name.
“I don’t know much about this guy but I’ve done some research on him and I saw that he has fought the likes of Andrew Lewis (Six Heads) and Howard Eastman” Camacho said, adding “It’s not bad given that he only has 25 fights, I also heard he’s a strong guy, but I’ve faced tougher than him before in my career, so, I’m not worried I just want to make a statement.”
The younger Camacho has watched his father boxed the likes of ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, Felix ‘Tito’ Trinidad and Julio Cesar Chavez, all classical fights two of which he had lost (Chavez and Trinidad) and yesterday he declared it’s not easy being a ‘Camacho’.
“Being a Camacho has its pros and cons for example, people always compare me to my father even though I say to them I’m more handsome” he jokingly said but firmly mentioned after that “it gets harder when the world expect you to win every fight because your father was a great fighter, but I try to start my own legacy and I try to show that while we might have the same style, I’m different in many ways, but I am grateful for the skills that was passed down to me”
Many local boxing fans were hoping to catch a glimpse of the man they remember as the ‘show boat’ for boxing but according to Hector Camacho jr, “well as everyone knows my father is not always the best behaved person outside of the ring and as such, I’m sorry to say that he would not be coming to Guyana because he can’t leave the country (USA), but I know he will be supporting me like always from home.”
Apart from coming to Guyana to entertain the audience with his showmanship, his exquisite boxing style, his flashiness and outrageous boxing costume, Camacho says that he, “would love to have an opportunity to work with some of the kids in the boxing gym and some areas where the sport is popular in the communities and so on. Me and my manager (Teddy Coleman) we’re really looking forward to coming to Guyana and put on a good show.”