In a storied amateur career, Camacho won three New York Golden Gloves tournaments, beginning with the Sub-Novice 112 lbs championship in 1978.

[3] During his professional career, Camacho had many notable fights against some of the biggest names in boxing, defeating Rafael Limon, Jose Luis Ramirez, Edwin Rosario, Ray Mancini, Vinny Paz, Greg Haugen, Roberto Durán twice late in Duran's career, and knocking out Sugar Ray Leonard.

On November 20, 2012, Camacho was shot and seriously wounded while sitting in a car outside a bar in his native Bayamón; the driver, a childhood friend, was killed in the shooting.

Camacho died four days later; after he was declared clinically brain dead, his mother requested the doctors remove him from life support.

Pat Flannery, a language teacher in high school, helped the youth, teaching him to read and "acting like a father figure".

In the junior-lightweight division, he defeated the top contenders Irleis Cubanito Perez, Melvin Paul, John Montes, and Refugio Rojas.

Moving up to lightweight, Camacho won the United States Boxing Association title against Roque Montoya with a 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.

He met former WBC lightweight champion Edwin Rosario on June 13, 1986, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, a bout also broadcast on HBO.

Camacho retained his title against Cornelius Boza-Edwards, a former world junior lightweight champion, in Miami in a unanimous decision, after dropping Edwards in the first round.

Camacho entered the ring in an outfit based on the Puerto Rican flag; the fight was televised by Showtime's Pay Per View.

Camacho fought for the World Welterweight Championship against Félix Trinidad (1994) and Oscar De La Hoya (1997), but he lost both matches by unanimous decisions.

[16] On January 6, 2005, Camacho was arrested by police in Gulfport, Mississippi on charges of trying to burglize an electronic goods store and carrying the drug ecstasy on him.

[20] The bullet pierced Camacho's left mandible and fractured his fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae, lodging in his right shoulder and forming a lesion on his carotid artery that restricted blood flow to his brain.

[26] The morning after the shooting, Rafael Rodríguez Mercado, director of the Medical Sciences Campus, reported to El Nuevo Día that Camacho was brain stem dead.

"[29] Puerto Rican governor-elect, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, said Camacho had "united the country"; "We celebrated his triumphs in the streets and we applauded him with noble sportsmanship when he didn't prevail.

"[29] Asked how he wished his son to be remembered, his father said for his clowning around and that he was a happy person, that he had revolutionized boxing by how he was dressed upon entering the ring.

[12] After Camacho's death, his mother, María Matías, expressed the wish for her son to be buried in New York City, where he had grown up and started his fighting career.

Among them were Félix "Tito" Trinidad, Wilfred Benítez, Wilfredo Gómez, John John Molina, Samuel Serrano, Román "Rocky" Martínez, Juan Manuel López, Nelson Dieppa, Alex "El Nene" Sánchez, Julian Solís, Manny Siaca, and the brothers McWilliams and McJoe Arroyo.

[32] Trinidad was outspoken in praise for his former rival, saying Camacho "put Puerto Rico's flag up high, with a lot of pride like many other champions have done.

Two white horses pulled a hearse carriage up First Avenue surrounded by fans, friends and family of the late boxer.

[37] Several sports journalists, analysts, and experts from Puerto Rico and United States have praised Camacho's skills and influence in the boxing world.

The journalist Rafael Bracero and Francisco Valcárcel, president of the World Boxing Organization, agreed that Camacho was among the "Top 5 Puerto Rican boxers" of all time, along with Félix "Tito" Trinidad, Wilfredo Gómez, and Wilfred Benítez.

The boxing historian, Mario Rivera Martinó, praised Camacho, calling him a "complete fighter" in the Lightweight division.

[citation needed] Ed Brophy, director of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, noted Camacho's talents in attracting an audience.

[39]Jaime Vega-Curry (deputy editor of ESPN Deportes), said Camacho was "a character that combined a contagious charisma, impressive boxing quality, a child's soul, a salesman's shrewdness, and a superlative confidence on himself and in the force of his 'Macho Time'"[39] Brophy noted Camacho would be eligible for the International Boxing Hall of Fame in December 2015.

"[40] Camacho, along with Lupe Pintor and Hilario Zapata, among others, was voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in December 2015 and was inducted in June 2016.

In 2003, The Press and Guide of Dearborn, Michigan printed an engagement notice between Camacho and Shelly Salemassi, along with a photograph of the couple.

[52] Rapper Lil Wayne referred to Camacho and the professional wrestler "Macho Man" Randy Savage in his 2008 single, "Mr. Carter".

Another biography, "Macho Time: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of Hector Camacho", by writer Christian Giudice, was published on October 20, 2020.