MARTIN Murray has failed in his bid to take out the WBC middleweight title in Argentina after losing a closely fought encounter on points.

But he gave the veteran champion a torrid night, twice flooring Sergio Martinez with clean punches.

The three judges harshly gave it to Martinez to the tune of 115-112 – inflicting Murray’s first ever professional defeat.

The bout, fought out in the cauldron like atmosphere of Atlético Vélez Sarsfield football stadium, was brought forward due to the torrential rain which caused some safety concerns.

But there was no case of the rain being a leveller – that would be as grosser disservice to Murray as what the judges dished up to him at the end.

Quite simply Murray produced the fight of his life.

Martinez had hand-picked Murray – a sacrificial Englishman - for his homecoming fight after an 11 year absence.

But Murray handled the occasion, from the hostile ring walk to the tense opening round, with great maturity.

After a steady defensive opening two rounds, Murray heeded the advice of his expert trainer Oliver Harrison and began to impose himself physically on the 38-year-old champion.

Murray’s tough, regimented defence frustrated the champion, who did manage to land some body shots, but failed to noticeably hurt him.

The fight did come to life in round three, with Murray landing a great right hook to let Martinez know he was in a fight.

And you could see Murray was beginning to rattle Martinez, with an alleged Murray low blow in the fourth being milked for all it is worth.

That could not mask the fact that Murray had landed more clean punches in the round and was beginning to get on top.

A good right hook from Murray in the fifth, drew a response from the champion but suddenly the 40,000 voices were sounding a little more subdued.

Murray could scent blood – we could certainly see it trickling from Martinez’s left eye – and in six and seven he was clearly rocking the champion with some clean shots to the head and body.

The script of a glorious homecoming was certainly being ripped up by the man from St Helens.

And Murray turned the Argentine’s prediction of an eighth round stoppage completely in its head when the challenger floored the middleweight king with a right hand to the jaw.

Martinez knew he had a battle on his hand – and needed to finish with a flourish after Murray had stamped his physical presence on the fight from round three.

The champion was the busiest of the fighters in the ninth, Murray sustaining a bloodied nose, but still managing to land the cleaner shots of the two.

And that again paid off for Murray in the tenth with him once again flooring the champion. The referee bizarrely ruled a slip – but it was the punch from Murray that had sent him sprawling to the canvas.

Little things like that call were going to harshly count against him in the final analysis.

But Murray did not let that affect him going into the last two rounds, nor did he let the knowledge of what Martinez had done to fellow Brits Matthew Macklin and Darren Barker in the eleventh play in his mind.

Martinez did rally a little in the closing stages, but not once did he noticeably wobble the 30-year-old from Fingerpost.

At the closing bell Martinez launched himself up on to the corner posts to lead an impromptu chorus of Argentina, Argentina – but it was not a convincing celebration.

The wily old champ, billed one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, had been given a tough night at the office.

Murray rightly looked unimpressed by the judges’ cards, but he can be wholly proud of his performance in the most hostile of environments.

Murray has done himself, his family and his town proud and flew the flag defiantly for St Helens.

And this display will surely open up more doors – after drawing with Felix Sturm and coming within a whisker of beating Martinez, Murray has really announced his arrival on the world stage.