Updated Nov 21, 2012 4:32 PM ET
Police in Puerto Rico say they
discovered cocaine inside the car in which Hector ''Macho'' Camacho was shot and critically wounded.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)
Hector ''Macho'' Camacho was clinging to life Wednesday after being shot in the face while in a car, with doctors and his family expected to decide whether to remove the former boxing champion from life support.
Doctors initially had said Camacho was in critical, but stable condition and expected to survive after he was shot Tuesday night in his hometown of Bayamon. But his condition worsened overnight and his heart stopped at one point, said Dr. Ernesto Torres, director of the Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan.
''He's battling minute to minute. This is the most important fight of his life,'' Torres told The Associated Press outside the hospital in the Puerto Rican capital.
The 50-year-old Camacho was shot as he and a friend sat in a Ford Mustang parked outside a bar. Police spokesman Alex Diaz said officers found nine small bags of cocaine in the friend's pocket, and a 10th bag open inside the car. Torres said doctors were trying to determine the boxer's level of brain activity.
The specialists will then consult with other doctors and Camacho's mother, who flew in Wednesday from New York, to discuss whether he should be removed from life support, said Ismael Leandry, a longtime friend and former manager who was also at the hospital.
''We just have to wait to see if `Macho' gets better. It's a hard battle,'' Leandry told AP.
Torres said Camacho's mother, Maria Matias, spent about 20 minutes with her son, one of the most dynamic boxing personalities of his era, and was expected to return for a second visit on Wednesday night.
''His mother came and she is devastated,'' he said. ''She knows the prognosis is not at all favorable.''
A godson, Widniel Adorno, said the family has discussed the possibility of organ donation but no final decision has been made.
Camacho's friend, identified as 49-year-old Adrian Mojica Moreno, was killed in the attack. Police said two assailants fled in an SUV but no arrests have been made and no motive has been disclosed.
Camacho was rushed to Centro Medico, where doctors initially said the bullet passed through his jaw and lodged in his shoulder. Torres said the bullet damaged three of the four main arteries in his neck and fractured two vertebrae, which could leave him paralyzed if he were to survive.
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.
His wife also filed domestic abuse complaints against him twice before their divorce several years ago.