Boxer Out of Coma a Week After Fight

British boxer Nick Blackwell woke from an induced coma a week after collapsing following a fight and he is speaking from his hospital bed, promoters said Monday. Promoter Hennessy Sports published a picture of Blackwell looking into the camera with his left fist seemingly clenched, surrounded by his brother and a friend. Blackwell collapsed soon after the end of the British middleweight title fight on March 26 against Chris Eubank Jr., the AP reports. The bout had been stopped in the 10th round after the ringside doctor advised the referee that Blackwell was unable to see through his left eye. Minutes later, Blackwell fell to the floor in the ring and was taken to hospital.

It was initially reported that the 25-year-old suffered a bleed on the brain, the BBC reports, but medics have now concluded that the bleeding was "outside the brain on the skull" and "was minor enough for there to be no need to operate," Hennessy Sports said. Blackwell woke from the coma on Saturday at St. Mary's Hospital in London after sedatives were gradually reduced. "(Blackwell) acknowledged the voices of loved ones and, by Sunday, was starting to talk," Hennessy Sports said. "It was the outcome everyone had been hoping and praying for; Nick had won his toughest fight yet. ... He's a fighter. He's a warrior." (More boxing stories.)