Sergio Martinez came back home to his native Argentina Saturday night for the first time in 11 years to a raucous, partisan crowd of 45,000 at Club Atl?tico V?lez Sarsfield, a legendary soccer stadium in Buenos Aires.
And in a questionable decision, Martinez squeaked by tough Englishman Martin Murray by unanimous decision to retain his WBC middleweight title in a hard rain.
The 38-year-old Martinez ( 51-2-2 (28 KOs), was clearly outworked by Murray (25-1-1, (11 KOs) through most of the middle rounds, and Murray was connecting with the harder punches.
CompuBox statistics showed that Murray outlanded Martinez in power punches 128=87, and knocked Martinez down in the eighth round. Martinez also went down in the 10th round but But the three judges all scored it 115-112 for Martinez.
Martinez was awed by the crowd. “It was the most marvelous thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.
Martinez said he was handicapped when he hurt his hand in the eighth round. “I hurt my hand. I hurt my left hand and it might be broken,” he said. “I knew I was winning clearly but my hand was hurting since the eighth round.”
Asked what the victory means, Martinez said, “It burns my name in people’s memory and makes my name even bigger in boxing history. I have to work to get better but superstars are like that. We have to get better against any odds.”
