Magee admits his career is over after gang beating

Eamonn Magee, the World Boxing Union welterweight champion who was the victim of a savage attack at the weekend, announced last night that he would not box again.

Speaking in an interview with BBC Northern Ireland at his Royal Victoria Hospital bed he said: "I can guarantee you that my career is over. Two specialists have told me so."

The Ulsterman suffered a broken leg, a fractured knee and a punctured lung during a brutal assault in Catholic west Belfast, when he was dragged from his car and beaten by a gang wielding baseball bats.

Magee, 32, said: "It is difficult to cope with. I have not got over it. I'm so disgusted. This week was to have been the best of my boxing life. I was just about to sign up to fight Sharmba Mitchell at the MEN Arena.

"If I had beaten Mitchell we were definitely lining up Ricky Hatton and the winner of that would have become a very wealthy man."

He would not discuss the motive for the attack during the interview and he has refused to cooperate with police investigators.

Magee said that he had feared he was going to be killed and that it had been "one of the most frightening experiences of my life".

Although he is retiring from the ring he is determined to stay in the sport and is keen to start training or even managing boxers once he has fully recovered.

Magee's coach John Breen, who guided the boxer to the Commonwealth light-welterweight title and WBU belt, said he was devastated by the news.

"I feel so sorry for him and I just can't take it in," Breen said. "It's hard to believe that he was being set up for some big fights and now they'll never happen for him.

"I don't think we ever saw the very best of Eamonn Magee and now we never will see the best of him in the ring.

"He was a world-class fighter who feared nobody and he could give anyone in the world a fight. It's such a sickening way for his career to end."

After the interview Magee underwent surgery to have muscle taken from his right leg and grafted on to his fractured left leg, which lost a substantial amount of tissue.

Magee said doctors had advised against placing him under general anaesthetic because of a blood clot on his lung.

He explained: "They were looking to put me under anaesthetic for six hours but could not because I also have a blood clot on my lung.

"So they are going to take a different part of muscle out of my right leg which means I will only be under anaesthetic for an hour which is safer. It would be a life-or-death situation if I went under for six hours."