Nick Blackwell latest: British boxer to wake from coma in next 'two to three days'

Blackwell has been in an induced coma since Saturday after suffering a bleed on the brain in his defeat by Chris Eubank Jnr

Nick Blackwell, right, was stopped on the doctor's advice in the 10th round (Reuters)

British boxer Nick Blackwell will be brought out of his induced coma in the next two to three days, his family have revealed.

25-year-old Blackwell suffered a small bleed on the brain during his British middleweight title fight against Chris Eubank Jnr last Saturday, in which the bout was halted during the tenth round after the ringside doctor deemed Blackwell’s left eye too swollen to continue.

Blackwell had taken a number of fierce uppercuts from Eubanks Jnr, and he collapsed after the fight before being taken out of the Wembley Arena on a stretcher and rushed to St Mary’s hospital, where he was placed in a medically-induced coma.

However, Blackwell’s family expect the Towbridge-born boxer to wake up in the next few days, according to BBC boxing correspondent Mike Costello, as doctors begin to reduce the volume of drugs that he is receiving to keep him in the coma and allow his swelling on the brain to reduce.

"I'm told the vital signs are good and doctors are cautiously optimistic," Costello told BBC Radio 5 live. "There are no major issues within the context of his condition."

Match referee, Victor Loughlin, has come under fire from both Eubank Jnr and his father, Chris Eubank Snr, for not stopping the fight sooner, but the British Boxing Board of Control declared it was satisfied with his handling of the bout, while other leading names in the sport have agreed with the decision to let the fight go on.

Former WBA featherweight world champion and trainer, Barry McGuigan, labelled Blackwell’s injury as an “isolated incident” and said that “nobody was to blame”, while trainer Adam Booth claimed that Loughlin had “acted immaculately” in his handling of the fight.

Eubank Snr had told his son at the end of the seventh round not to target Blackwell’s head anymore due to the level of damage that he has suffered, with Eubank Jnr instead switching to a barrage of body shots before claiming to “ease off” in the later rounds.