GWENT Commonwealth Games gold medalist Jamie Arthur's next professional fight could be his first on the continent, writes Andrew Whittle.

A bout on the undercard of cruiserweight Johnny Nelson's world title defence in Bayreuth, Germany, is looking likely after Arthur took his pro record to 4-0 at Portsmouth's Mountbatten Centre.

The Cwmbran boxer put up possibly his best display so far with a fourth-round stoppage of durable Belfast lightweight Dafydd Carlin.

Welsh-born Carlin had boxed as recently as the previous weekend when he won a four-round contest at Belfast's Ulster Hall against previously unbeaten Ryan Barrett.

But he found the going a little tougher against Arthur who looked in confident mood from the opening bell.

A big left in the first round rocked Carlin momentarily and it was clear by the end of the opening session that there would be no surprise result.

Arthur stepped up the pace gradually as the bout progressed and a short left to the chin in the dying seconds of the second round rocked Carlin again.

By the time the bell sounded Arthur's opponent had picked up a fair amount of reddening around the right eye.

There was to be no respite for the Belfast-based man and Arthur's pressure was rewarded towards the end of the third when a right upper-cut sent his Brecon-born opponent down for a count.

Maintaining the pace into the next, Arthur slammed home a fine right to the point of the chin to drop Carlin again and though he rose to continue, referee Ritchie Davies had seen enough and waived a halt with just 29 seconds of the final round remaining.

Speaking later Arthur said that he had not gone out looking for a stoppage but had felt fresh throughout and thought that work on his fitness had paid dividends.