Hector 'Macho' Camacho dead at 50 after being removed from life support

Former boxing champion Hector "Macho" Camacho died Saturday morning at the hospital in Puerto Rico where he has been unconscious since he was shot in the face last week.

Camacho went into cardiac arrest in the pre-dawn hours and was then taken off life support and died shortly after, reports The Associated Press.

Dr. Ernesto Torres, the director of the Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan, said the final decision was made after it had been authorized by the fighter's mother, Maria Matias.

The death came before the family was scheduled to make an announcement Saturday morning regarding taking Camacho off of the artificial respirator.  Matias wanted to wait until the boxer's three sons arrived in Puerto Rico from the U.S. mainland and had a chance to see their father for the last time.

Doctors had declared Camacho brain dead on Thursday.  Matias had said she decided it was time for doctors to disconnect life support over the objections of the boxer's eldest son, Hector Jr., because there was no chance of recovery.

The sons managed to visit their father before he died, said former pro boxer Victor "Luvi" Callejas, a longtime friend, who had been acting as a family spokesperson.

"The family is destroyed," Callejas said outside the hospital.