In Memoriam to Hector ’Macho” Camacho 50, Brain Dead

Hector "Macho" Camacho, known for his flamboyant style during his career

Dr Ernesto Torres speaks to reporters at a hospital in Puerto Rico about the condition of boxer Hector Camacho. Photograph: Ricardo Arduengo/AP

The former world champion Hector "Macho" Camacho is clinically brain dead, according to doctors in Puerto Rico, though they added that family members were disagreeing on whether to take him off life support.

Dr Ernesto Torres said medical tests on Camacho had been completed after he was shot in the face on Tuesday night. "We have done everything we could," said Torres, who is the director of the Centro Medico trauma centre in San Juan, the island's capital. "We have to tell the people of Puerto Rico and the entire world that Macho Camacho has died, he is brain dead."

The 50-year-old Camacho was shot as he and a friend sat in a Ford Mustang parked outside a bar. Police found nine small bags of cocaine in the friend's pocket and a 10th bag open inside the car. Camacho's friend, identified as 49-year-old Adrian Mojica Moreno, was killed in the attack.

Doctors had initially said Camacho was expected to survive but his condition worsened and his heart stopped briefly on Tuesday night. The bullet entered his jaw and lodged in his shoulder after tearing through three of four main arteries in his neck, affecting blood flow through his brain, doctors said. "That lack of oxygen greatly damaged Macho Camacho's brain," Torres said.

The family expects to say by Friday if Camacho should remain on life support. Camacho's father has already indicated that he wants the boxer taken off life support and his organs donated, but one of his sisters opposes the idea. "This is a very difficult moment," Torres said.

Ismael Leandry, a longtime friend and former manager, told reporters that Camacho's mother also is wavering on taking her son off life support and would like more time with him. He said the family was waiting for Camacho's oldest son to arrive on Thursday night before making a decision.

"Let's remember him as a good man," Leandry said. "He was a good father, a good son."

Steve Tannenbaum, a friend and a former boxing agent for Camacho, said that he idolised Camacho as a boxer. "He is one of the greatest small fighters that I have ever seen," he said. "Hector Camacho had a legendary status."

Tannenbaum said he initially believed Camacho would survive. "He was almost like the indestructible man. He had so many troubles with the law, so many altercations in his life. It's a great shame."

Camacho was born in Bayamon, a city within the San Juan metropolitan area, but he grew up mostly in New York's Harlem neighbourhood, earning the nickname "the Harlem Heckler".

He won super lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight world titles in the 1980s and fought Felix Trinidad, Julio César Chávez and Sugar Ray Leonard. Camacho knocked out Leonard in 1997, ending the former champion's final comeback attempt. Camacho has a career record of 79-6-3.

In recent years, he divided his time between Puerto Rico and Florida, appearing regularly on Spanish-language television as well as on a reality show called "Es Macho Time!" on YouTube. In San Juan, he had been living in the beach community of Isla Verde, where he would readily pose for photographs with tourists who recognised him on the street.