NEW YORK -- A boxer underwent brain surgery Wednesday after being critically injured in the first professional bouts aboard an aircraft carrier moored as a museum on the Hudson River.

Beethavean Scottland, 26, of North Brentwood, Md., was knocked out by light-heavyweight George Khalid Jones of Paterson, N.J., in the 10th round of the fight aboard the USS Intrepid on Tuesday night.

His head injuries left him in very critical condition at Bellevue Hospital, and he was to undergo several hours of brain surgery Wednesday, according to a hospital spokeswoman who would not permit her name to be used.

Scottland took the bout on four days' notice when another boxer, David Telesco, withdrew from the match after breaking his nose in training.

Jones, a left-hander, used a left to the back of the head to stagger Scottland and sent him to the mat with a right to the left of the head.

Scottland fell to the mat, lay unconscious for several minutes, and was carried out by paramedics on a stretcher.

The knockout was the 12th in 13 bouts for Jones, a 174-pounder who almost floored the 172-pound Scottland in the seventh round but backed off 30 seconds before the bell.

The match was the first professional sporting event held at the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum, a retired aircraft carrier from World War II that also served during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the Soviet era. It has been docked on the Hudson River since 1982. When the ship was used for military purposes, boxers were sometimes brought aboard to entertain the crew.

Tuesday evening's event, held on the ship's 900-foot-long flight deck, featured a half-dozen fights and was televised on ESPN2. Over 2,000 people attended the match on the ship, paying $30 to $100 per ticket.

The venue had been billed as a picturesque setting, perfect for a telecast, with the Manhattan skyline on one side and the sun setting over the Hudson River on the other.

No other matches are scheduled aboard the ship but a spokesman for marketing for the Intrepid, Mark Albin, said "we're not opposed to doing it in the future. It's unfortunately the nature of the sport that injuries sometimes occur."

The promoter for the fight, Duva Boxing, and the state athletic commission, which had a doctor at the scene, did not immediately return calls for comment.