Over in Hannover, Germany, last night, Martin Murray, now boxing at super-middleweight, was making a fourth attempt at winning a world title.
After defeats in his previous three attempts, all at middleweight, Murray was hoping to end the reign of the WBO super-middleweight champion Arthur Abraham.
Unfortunately, Murray was to come up short for a fourth time, losing a split decision to the veteran fighter with the judges scoring the bout:
? 115-112 (in favour of Abraham)
? 115-112 (in favour of Murray)
? 116-111 (in favour of Abraham)
Ahead of the fight it had been called a win or bust bout for the St Helens fighter, however, the manner of his defeat, whereby he matched Abraham for long periods of the fight and was actually given the verdict by one judge, suggests Murray still has a future at world level.
Abraham once again showed that he is a cagey fighter with an uncanny knack of slipping his opponents punches and doing enough to sneak the rounds. Murray was never in trouble against the champion and on one occasion caught Abraham with a punch that shook him to his boots, sadly Murray didn?t follow up with any significant blows to finish his man off.
Murray was deducted a point, for persistent use of the shoulder, late on and that point lost was probably the final straw for the British fighter.
The win takes Abraham to 44 wins and 4 defeats whilst Murray slips to 32 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw.
It remains to be seen what is next on the agenda for both fighters.
Murray misses out for a Fourth Time
