Ricky Burns' career hangs in the balance after he suffered a broken jaw during his World Boxing Organization lightweight title defence against Raymundo Beltran on Saturday night.
Eddie Hearn, the Scot's manager, fears the 30-year-old may never fight again after undergoing an operation to have a titanium plate fitted in the aftermath of a controversial contest at the SECC in Glasgow.
Burns retained his title when the 12-round bout was declared a draw, despite Beltran dominating and flooring the Scot in the eighth round. Ritchie Davies, the English judge, held the deciding card and his score of 114-114 meant Burns, who suffered the injury to his jaw in the second round, surprisingly held on to his crown.
Hearn said: "I can't guarantee Ricky will box again. It's a major operation. We don't know how he will recover from that and the jaw is an integral part of a boxer's make-up. My gut feeling is he will come back, but it will be some time before he's ready again."
Meanwhile, Steve Feder, the manager of Mexican boxer Beltran, has insisted that the outcome of the Glasgow scrap was an act of "corruption".
The sense of disillusionment in the Beltran camp was clear and Feder held no punches in his post-fight summary.
"Corruption: look it up. We're corrupting a beautiful sport," he said. "When it's done right it is beautiful, but tonight tarnished it. He [Beltran] was robbed. The least I had it was 115-113. I think it's a sad day for the sport. Boxing was robbed here.
"You'd rather write about great fights than a tragedy like this. Ricky is a true champion and I think he would have lived with a loss tonight. Ricky is still the champion. I can tell my kid that he is the true champion, but Ricky is probably going to walk into Madison Square Garden and fight [Miguel] Vasquez or [Terence] Crawford.
"Did he earn the right to do that? No, he didn't. There is a lot of politics, a lot of moving around. There were a lot of discussions beforehand about Ricky's next fight, which, again, I always feel is bad for the sport."
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