Arthur Abraham defeats Martin Murray via split nod in Hannover

Murray was deducted a point, after a couple of warnings, in the 11th for using the shoulder, which all-but ended the 33-year-old’s hopes.

Murray hurt his opponent in the eighth round, but Abraham was awarded verdicts of 116-111 and 115-112, while the third judge scored it 115-112 in Murray’s favour.

The Briton was unable to capitalise, though, and Abraham kept him it at bay for the remainder, drawing the point deduction he had been asking of the referee for most of the fight. Numerous rounds could have gone Murray’s way because he was the busier guy virtually every round of the fight. It appeared to be a part of Murray’s tactics early in the fight, to slip Abraham’s right hand and go under and tuck into the champion’s torso.

Murray will come again – and insisted he will not desist until he holds a world crown.

Murray had considerable success over the twelve rounds, including a massive shot midway that rocked Abraham to the core, although “King” Arthur used his extensive boxing knowledge to recover.

For Murray, this has to be seen as a huge disappointment.

“He was a world class boxer, he was a sandbag, but we were better tactically and combatively”, said Abraham, who improved to 44-4 (29 KOs) after defending his title for the fifth time. In 2011, he fought Felix Sturm to a draw in Germany, and in 2013 was arguably robbed of the middleweight championship in Argentina against Sergio Martinez.

Abraham, his guard high, and throwing power shots, fought his way back into a very close contest by the tenth stanza.