Martinez turns 39 in February and there were signs in his last fight, a narrow victory over Englishman Martin Murray in April, that he is over the hill.
Dante wins the battle, but in what becomes a recurring theme, the defeated boss monster reappears a short time later in a corridor, forcing Dante to choose a narrow escape or to fight in the tight confines.
Their two fights — a narrow, exciting defeat and a scintillating second-round knockout — elevated Martinez to boxing's stratosphere.
"If we had lost fair and square, I would have taken it but to lose it in the way we did - by such a narrow margin after having fought so hard with 14 players for 75 minutes - hurts so much more".
David Kidwell's side certainly put up a real fight and a narrow defeat helps their case for qualification if it boils down to points difference – but in the end, as has been customary over the years, Australia simply found a way to win.
Overcoming a cut from an accidental head butt in the third round and several brutal rounds with Joshua Clottey, Cotto fought to a narrow split decision Saturday night in a packed Madison Square Garden, retaining his World Boxing Organization welterweight title.
Because the 2000 and 2004 campaigns were fought on a narrow battlefield of around 15 swing states, voters elsewhere rarely saw TV commercials in the general election campaign; candidates mostly limited their broadcasting advertising to "spot" buys in selected markets.
Is he suggesting they would rather lose the referendum resoundingly, and see Farage's political capital and potential appeal discredited, than fight and risk a narrow defeat?
It was less than an hour after the 32-year-old from Oakland had wrested the WBA, WBO and IBF light heavyweight titles from Sergey Kovalev at the T-Mobile Arena, coffng off the canvas to rally during the second half of the fight to nick a narrow, controversial unanimous decision.
A narrow Labour victory ended a closely fought election in Nottinghamshire after four years of Tory control.
