Former boxing world champion Hector Camacho shot in head

Former three time world boxing champion Hector Camacho has been seriously injured after being shot in the head in Puerto Rico.

The 50-year-old was by gunshot from another vehicle while being driven in his home city of Bayamon last night.

Camacho, one of the most colourful fighters of the 1980s, was left in a critical condition after a bullet hit his jaw and ended in his shoulder, fracturing two vertebrae in his neck.

Ernesto Torres, director of the Centro Medico de Rio Piedras, was cautious about Camacho's chances of survival.

"It appears the bullet struck a bone and was deflected without going into the brain," Torres told reporters.

However, Steve Tannenbaum, the fighter's representative, was more optimistic about Camacho's chances and said friends at the hospital had told him the boxer would survive.

"This guy is a cat with nine lives," he said.

"He's been through so much. If anybody can pull through it will be him."

Hector 'Macho' Camacho won world titles at junior welterweight, lightweight and superlightweight in a near-30 year career, boasting a 79-6-3 with 38 knockouts.

Despite issues with drink and drugs, he took on high profile contenders including Roberto Duran, Oscar De La Hoya, Julio Cesar Chavez, Sugar Ray Leonard and Felix Trinidad.

In recent years he had featured on reality TV shows, has made appearances on two reality television programs, including the Latin American version of Dancing With The Stars.

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