Junior middleweight contender Michel Soro battered Cedric Vitu before stopping him in round five Friday night at the Accor Hotel Arena in Paris, France.

With the victory, Soro improves to 35-2-1 (24 knockouts).

The all-France clash between Soro and Vitu quickly turned into a one-sided fight after a feeling-out opening round. Soro closed the distance as the 34-year-old southpaw attempted to keep his distance. By the third round, Soro began letting his hands go, connecting to the head and body. A right cross to the head towards the end of round three produced blood from the nose of Vitu.

Anytime Vitu attempted to mount an offense, Soro would make him pay, connecting with several hooks and straight right hands to the head. Sensing Vitu was weakening due to a diminishing punch output, the 32-year-old Soro, who is originally from the Ivory Coast and now resides in southeastern French city of Villeurbanne, sat down on his punches on a reeling Vitu.

Soro continued to punish Vitu during the opening minute of round five. A combination sent Vitu reeling across the ring and into the ropes. Soro followed up and battered Vitu, who almost went down, but referee Leszek Jankowiak stepped in and stopped the bout at 2:00 of the round.

Soro, who is ranked No. 8 by The Ring, has now won his last five bouts. Abel Sanchez, who trains Soro, told The Ring earlier this week that there is a possibility a fight will be made against Erislandy Lara for February or March of next year.

Vitu has now lost two of his last three fights and falls to 47-4 (19 KOs).

In the co-feature, WBA cruiserweight titleholder Arsen Goulamirian, who is of Armenian descent and is also trained by Abel Sanchez, knocked out Kane Watts (21-4, 13 KOs) of Australia in the third round. Goulamirian, who is ranked No. 8 by The Ring, improves to 25-0, 17 KOs.

Junior middleweight prospect Dylan Charrat of France improved to 19-0-1, 5 KOs by stopping former fringe welterweight contender Johan Perez (24-7-2, 16 KOs) of Venezuela in the second round.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and FightNights.com. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing