By Elliot Foster

Martin Murray has confirmed his retirement from boxing in the aftermath of his latest defeat.

The Merseyside middleweight, 36, succumbed the WBC Silver belt to Hassan N’Dam on Saturday.

Murray, a former four-time world title challenger, took on the former WBO and WBA ‘regular’ world champion at Manchester Arena, exclusively live on BT Sport Box Office.

But he was on the wrong end of a close 12-round contest, as part of the supporting cast to Josh Warrington’s IBF featherweight world title defence against former two-weight king Carl Frampton.

The three ringside judges saw the contest 114-114, 117-112 and 116-112, with a delighted N’Dam being awarded the win over Murray.

And Murray, in the wake of that defeat, has said that he will not fight again.

“I’m gutted,” said Murray, who knocked down N’Dam in the fight, about the affair. “I was at home and I thought I had got it. There was no way he won all those rounds, [like the scorecards suggested], and I was surprised.

“It is what it is. It wasn’t the performance I wanted and everything about it was right apart from the decision.”

Murray, who lost to George Groves back in June 2016, said during fight week that he believed that he was “just one loss away from retirement.”

“I’m not going to cry about it, but that’s it,” he continued. “I’m done. It’s taken me two-and-a-half years to get from the loss to Groves to here and I’ve had an awful year. My life is about my family, boxing is a job to me and I just can’t keep doing it.

“It’s time for a new venture, everything happens for a reason and it is what it is.”