Denny Dalton has his hands full against a world rated ‘Machito’ Camacho

May 27, 2010 Sports

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The bout was initially fixed for the United States of American but Denny Dalton failed to convince officials at the United States Embassy that his purpose for traveling to their country was just to enhance his career with a win against Hector ‘Machito’ Camacho, son of former world champion, Hector Camacho.
The man that had arranged the bout, Seon Bristol must have felt disappointed by the turn of events but quickly readjusted his thought processes. He expertly went about re-siting the bout to Guyana. As the saying goes, if the mountain cannot come to Moses, Moses must go to the mountain. Bristol is a boxer from the old school; he will not accept defeat easily. After conducting a feasibility study Bristol decided that the Princess Hotel International, Providence would be just the right place, with appropriate ambience, to host the fight.
In the meantime, head of McNeal Enterprise, Odinga Lumumba was experiencing his own problems matching Corinne DeGroot against Shondell Alfred in a much anticipated rematch. Boxing buffs need not be bored by the details that precipitated bout number 2 with ‘The Sexy Panther” and the “Mystery Lady.” What is factual is that a Guyanese nationalist living in the USA possessed the gumption and the testicular fortitude to put his money where his mouth is. The fight is definitely fixed for Saturday June 5, just one measly week away.
DeGroot thinks she has Alfred’s number. She is spewing confidence especially since she firmly believes that she was ‘done in’ the last time they met. Alfred and her coaches, Sebert Blake and Joseph Murray believe that DeGroot is a dreamer.
They have been working assiduously, tightening the loose ends so that Alfred retains her title. The petite Alfred is bubbling with confidence. “This time around I am ready for DeGroot,” she exhorted. The action is going to be bristling. It’s a ‘don’t you dare miss it’ encounter.
The fans have a fair idea of who is Camacho but other than the fact that his father is one of the legendary boxers of the eighties, they know nothing about the son. “We know ‘Macho’ but who is ‘Machito?”
At the age of eight, ‘Machito’ Camacho gained some prominence, when he entered the ring with his dad shortly before the senior Camacho’s world title defence against Edwin Rosario. That night he wore a Puerto Rican flag attire.
After an award winning amateur boxing career with wins against Ishe Smith and a loss against Zab Judah, he turned professional in the middle 1990s. As a professional, he has beaten boxers like Rocky Martinez and former world champion Philip Holiday, and he had a no contest against former world champion Jesse James Leija.
The Leija fight was stopped in the fifth round due to an unintentional clash of heads opening a cut over Camacho’s eye. Camacho panicked and indicated he did not want to continue. In keeping with the rules officials decided to go to the scorecards to determine the winner. After the tally Camacho was given the decision. A disgruntled Leija protested the result, resulting in the fight being changed to a no-contest. There was a strong backlash against Camacho since many fans felt he quit in the fight.
In 2002, Camacho lost for the first time, to Argentine Omar Weiss, by a decision in ten rounds.
On July 9, 2005, Camacho Jr. and his father co-starred an undercard in Tucson, Arizona. After arriving into the ring sitting on a fake bull, Camacho Jr. proceeded to knock out Francisco Barra in the second round. A riot followed his father’s win that night; it is not clearly known if Camacho Jr. had a role in the riot.
He fought against Andrey Tsurkan at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on June 10, 2006 and suffered an eight round TKO. In July 2007, Camacho lost again this time to unheralded Don Juan Futrell. The former fighter came in overweight at 161 pounds and was outworked by the 150-pound Futrell, placing any hopes at future title contention in serious doubt for Camacho.
In December 2008, Camacho was scheduled to fight Yory Boy Campas in November in Tijuana, Mexico. Camacho did not turn up for the bout while saying that he did not sign up for that bout.
On August 29, 2009 Camacho defeated Israel Cardona for the vacant WBC Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) Light Middleweight title. In an interview prior to the match Camacho said that his passion for boxing had been re-ignited and he had his eyes set on winning a world title. The Cardona fight earned him a spot in the top ten ratings. The lanky fighter then fought Luis “Yory Boy” Campas on October 30 last year at the Don Haskins Convention Center in El Paso, Texas.
Camacho won the 10 rounds bout by split decision with the scores of 96-91 and 95-92 for the Puerto Rican, and 92-95 for the Mexican foe. This was a sort of “revenge”, after Campas had a draw with his father, Hector Camacho, just a few months before.
This is the Camacho Dalton aims to beat and stake a claim for a top ten ranking and a subsequent world title fight.
His record stands at 51 wins, 3 losses, 1 draw and 1 no contest, with 27 wins by knockout. In our next feature we will examine Dalton’s record and his chances of pulling off a victory.

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