Hector Camacho, 47, has urge and desire to keep on fighting

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s been nearly three decades since Hector Camacho won his first world title, and almost two decades since he won his last.

For those 10 years in between, he was among the most exciting and controversial figures in boxing. He was a brawler who reinvented himself as a defensive fighter, whose rivalry with Julio Cesar Chavez made just as many headlines as his outsized personality.

He’s 47 years old now, reduced to fighting in places like Coconut Creek and Biloxi instead of Las Vegas and New York. The glitzy casinos and glamour of Madison Square Garden have given way to hotel ballrooms and small convention centers, as the man nicknamed “Macho” keeps trying to stave off obscurity the best he can.

“This is something I’ve done all my life, you know?” Camacho said after a workout for his next fight, against Allan Vester on March 26 in Kjellerup, Denmark. “A couple years back, when I was doing it, I was still enjoying it. The competition, to see myself perform. I know I’m at the age that some people can’t do this no more.”

Camacho’s life and career have taken more turns than a pulp novel, from the gritty streets of Spanish Harlem to the bright lights of the Golden Gloves, from walking between the bars of a jail cell to stepping between the ropes of the ring.

His record stands at 79-5-3, the most recent win coming just last year against Yory Boy Campas, another fighter far past his prime. But scroll down the list of Camacho’s opponents and names like Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad and Ray Leonard are sprinkled among the nobodies and never-weres that hoped to make a name for themselves.

Like many fighters who achieved fame and fortune during the 1980s, Camacho became entangled in a web of drug and alcohol abuse — problems he said are now in the past. Twice his wife filed domestic abuse complaints against him, and she finally filed for divorce several years ago.

More recently, Camacho was sentenced to the maximum seven years in prison for a burglary charge in Mississippi. A judge suspended most of the sentence and gave him probation, which Camacho said he violated about three months ago. After a two-week stint in jail, Camacho was back in the gym and getting ready for his next fight.

“When I came out, I’ve been training every day for four, five months it’s been,” he said. “And now I’m ready to take on someone like Allan Vester, you know?