Ex-boxing champion Camacho wounded

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Former world boxing champion Hector "Macho" Camacho was shot in the face as he sat in a car outside the Puerto Rican capital Tuesday, and doctors said he was in serious condition but expected to survive.

Another man in the car, whose relationship to the 50-year-old Camacho wasn't immediately known, died in the attack in which at least one gunman opened fire on their vehicle in the city of Bayamon, according to a police statement.

Camacho was rushed to Centro Medico, the trauma center in San Juan, where he was in critical but stable condition, according to Dr. Ernesto Torres, the hospital director.

The bullet struck Camacho in the jaw but exited his head and lodged in his right shoulder and fractured two vertebrae, Torres said. He said Camacho could be paralyzed from the shooting.

"Camacho's condition is extremely delicate," he told Telenoticias. "His physical condition will help him, but we will see."

No arrests have been made in the shooting, police said.

Camacho representative Steve Tannenbaum said he was told by friends at the hospital that the boxer would live.

"This guy is a cat with nine lives. He's been through so much," Tannenbaum said. "If anybody can pull through, it will be him."

The fighter's last title bout came against then-welterweight champion Oscar De La Hoya in 1997, a loss by unanimous decision at the Thomas & Mack Center. Another memorable Camacho bout in Las Vegas was a WBC light welterweight title fight against Julio Cesar Chavez, another unanimous decision loss, on Sept. 12, 1992.

Tannenbaum said Camacho 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," Tannenbaum 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, Greg Haugen 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 in 2009.

Drug, alcohol and other problems have trailed Camacho since the prime of his 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 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.