ARSEN MARTIROSYAN vs JEREMY PARODI

France is the scene for a very good domestic fight on Friday when tough Armenian-born Arsen Martirosyan has home-ground advantage for his clash with unbeaten Jeremy Parodi in a 12-rounder in the 122-pound division.

Time was when sportsbooks would routinely offer lines on competitive fights such as this, but those days seem to be disappearing.

Martirosyan is a rough handful for anyone. He gave world-ranked Rendall Munroe a gruelling 12-round battle for the European title in England a couple of years ago and his only other loss in his last 17 bouts was narrowly on points to Daniel Kodjo Sassou, a much-improved boxer from the old French colony of Togo. (Sassou has lost just once — by split decision in Ukraine — in the past four years.)

Parodi has an impressive record but he is stepping up in class here. He has won various titles (French national championship included) but he has never met anyone as capable and rugged as Martirosyan.

From the little I have seen of Parodi he looks like a willing, confident type of fighter, well-conditioned and possessing a high workrate.

Martirosyan looks the sturdier individual and he, too, is known for a high punch-output. He rocked the southpaw Munroe with compact left hooks, weathered a shaky patch in the seventh and eighth rounds, when he was hurt to the body, and then steamed in again. Munroe’s corner implored their man after the 11th: “It’s all on this round,” and the British boxer did seem to take the 12th for a unanimous but close victory (one round from being a draw on two judges’ cards).

In his last fight, Martirosyan stopped the former French featherweight champion Osman Aktas in eight rounds, while Parodi struggled to outpoint the same opponent. Form, then, favours Martirosyan.

Based on his sterling showing against Munroe, hometown advantage and their respective performances against Aktas, I feel that Martirosyan should be deemed the slight favourite, but this looks like being a highly competitive fight that could go either way.

I liked the look of Parodi, from what I saw of him. He seems to have bundles of energy and he has a winner’s look about him. To win on Friday he will have to rise to another level, but I have a feeling that he can do it. I’m going with Parodi to lift his performance to meet the occasion. There are neutral judges, so the contest should, one hopes, be scored without bias.

In a bout that looks sure to go the full 12 rounds I’m going for Parodi to maintain his high punchrate and squeeze home a narrow winner.