British veteran Martin Murray made a successful return to the middleweight division with a 12-round majority decision over fellow world title challenger Gabriel Rosado at the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England, on Saturday. The official scores were 114-114, 116-112 and an abysmal 119-109.

Murray, who has been campaigning at 168 pounds for the past two years, boxed as well as he has in a long time but, in fairness, so did Rosado. The pair were evenly matched throughout most of the fight and the fans were treated to an entertaining scrap.

“I gave him three (or) four rounds max,” said Murray when interviewed by Sky Sports in the U.K. “He got schooled and I’m a level above him. I’m back in the middleweight division.”

I personally had the fight even at the midway point and then Murray appeared to solve the riddle. He stung the Philadelphia fighter with a sharp right hand at the end of the sixth and controlled consecutive sessions by interspersing movement with some nifty counter punching.

Rosado, not to be outdone, closed well in the championship rounds. It’s just a shame that the American’s efforts weren’t recognized by judge Leszek Jankowiak who simply doesn’t know how to score a fight.

There was a minor pushing match between the participants after the result was announced but order was quickly restored.

Since 2011, Murray has fallen short in four world title bouts. There was the draw with Felix Sturm, a close decision defeat to Sergio Martinez and an 11th-round stoppage loss to Gennady Golovkin. All those bouts took place at 160 pounds, and Murray also dropped a split decision to then-WBO super middleweight titleholder Arthur Abraham in November 2015.

There are still big fights available at 160 pounds, however, and Murray’s history and name recognition almost guarantees that he’ll be involved in one.

Murray improves to (35-4-1, 16 knockouts) and Rosado falls to (23-11, 13 KOs).

Tom Gray is a UK Correspondent/ Editor for RingTV.com and a member of THE RING ratings panel.  Follow him on Twitter: @Tom_Gray_Boxing