Unheralded junior middleweight Michael Soro stopped touted former prospect Glen Tapia in the fourth round of their scheduled 10-round main event on Friday at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

The bout, which topped a Top Rank-promoted show, was televised on truTV in the U.S.

Soro (26-1, 16 knockouts), a 27-year-old Ivory Coast native based in France, was the more poised boxer and the sharper puncher throughout the abbreviated affair. Tapia (23-2, 15 KOs), who failed to make weight, was the aggressor but was ponderous and predictable — until midway through Round 4 when he walked into a series of power shots that staggered him along the ropes where referee David Fields waved the bout off at 2:10.

Tapia, a 25-year-old New Jersey native, was three bouts removed from a savage TKO loss to James Kirkland in December 2013 going into the Soro fight.

Soro, who dropped a 12-round decision to then-WBO titleholder Zaurbek Baysangurov in May 2012, is now unbeaten in his last nine bouts.