Former boxer Camacho's condition worsening after shooting

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A longtime friend of boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho says the former world champion's condition has worsened after a shooting in Puerto Rico and he could be taken off life support.

Friend and former manager Ismael Leandry tells The Associated Press that doctors are waiting for Camacho's mother to decide whether he should be taken off life support. She was expected to arrive Wednesday morning at San Juan's Centro Medico from the U.S. mainland.

Camacho was shot in the face Tuesday in the city of Bayamon. A friend with him was killed. Doctors initially said the boxer was in critical condition but expected to survive. But his condition worsened.

Hospital Director Dr. Ernesto Torres says Camacho is in critical condition. No arrests have been made in the shooting.

Video: Hector "Macho" Camacho in critical condition

The bullet apparently struck him in the jaw but exited his head and lodged in his right shoulder and fractured two vertebrae, Torres said. The doctor said the boxer, who was trailed by drug and alcohol problems during a career that included some high-profile bouts, could be paralyzed from the shooting.

The fighter's last title bout came against then-welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya in 1997, a loss by unanimous decision. Tannenbaum said he was going to fight two years ago in Denmark until his opponent pulled out and that they were looking at a possible bout in 2013.

"We were talking comeback even though he is 50," he said. "I felt he was capable of it."

Camacho was born in Bayamon, one of the cities that make up the San Juan metropolitan area. He won super lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight world titles in the 1980s.

Camacho has fought other high-profile bouts in his career against Felix Trinidad, Julio Cesar Chavez and Sugar Ray Leonard. Camacho knocked out Leonard in 1997, ending what was that former champ's final comeback attempt.

Camacho has a career record of 79-5-3, with his most recent fight coming in 2009.

Drug, alcohol and other problems have trailed Camacho since the prime of his boxing career. He was sentenced in 2007 to seven years in prison for the burglary of a computer store in Mississippi. While arresting him on the burglary charge in January 2005, police also found the drug ecstasy.

A judge eventually suspended all but one year of the sentence and gave Camacho probation. He wound up serving two weeks in jail, though, after violating that probation.

Twice his wife filed domestic abuse complaints against him, and she filed for divorce several years ago.