A Civic reception for the return of Jamie Cox
Jamie Cox will return to the scene of one of his breakthrough fights after being added to the BoxNation bill at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Valentine's Night.
The formidable 28-year-old southpaw from Swindon last competed under the Civic lights in April 2009 against Telford's Mark Lloyd,
Cox was 53 seconds from losing their eliminator for the British welterweight title, as he was controversially behind on referee Shaun Messer's card going into the eighth and last round.
But a bloodied Cox managed to dig out a stoppage victory with less than a minute to spare, forcing Messer's intervention after trapping Lloyd with a flurry of punches.
His shot at the Lonsdale belt never materialised, though, so he stepped up to light middleweight and won the Commonwealth title in 2011, in another disputed decision against champion Obodai Sai.
Breaking both hands in the process, he relinquished his title and vanished from boxing, not returning until last year when he outpointed Matiouze Royer in his hometown.
But a re-focussed Cox is now ready to make up for last ground which will delight his fans, who have hailed him as a star of the future ever since he won gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2006.
An eight-rounder, against a yet-to-be-named opponent, on Saturday February 14 will get him up and running again under Frank Warren's banner.
In his corner will be Birmingham's John Costello, whose much-fancied son Joe is also down for six rounds at lightweight on the card.
Welshman Craig Evans is another fresh addition to the show, the highly-rated lightweight looking for straight win No 14 on the 14th in the paid ranks.
Evans, trained by Ricky Hatton's former coach Lee Beard, will take in another eight-rounder, with only the main event currently matched.
The top-liner will see Stephen Ormond defend his WBO European lightweight crown against British champion Terry Flanagan, to decide the next contender to the organisation's world title.
Brummie Tommy Langford provides chief support in a 10-round contest, which will likely be for a belt in what will be the undefeated middleweight's 12th pro outing.
Tipton's Ricky Summers and Redditch's Andrew Robinson, former stable-mates at Lions Boxing Club in Dudley, have six-round spots on the card.
Summers claimed International Masters light heavyweight honours in his last bout and will get his hands on Mitch Mitchell, who he has been matched with several times.
Robinson returns from his exciting points loss to Frank Buglioni for the WBO European super middleweight title.
Welsh super bantamweight Jay Harris drops to four rounds, the distance which will also feature Corby cruiserweight Simon Barclay and Brummie super bantam debutant Raza Hamza.
Bloxwich's Daniel Breeze, who has decided to box six days later in Aston Villa's Holte Suite instead, and Romeo Romaeo have dropped out of the line-up.
For more information and tickets to the show, call the Civic box office on 0870 320 7000 or promoter Paul 'PJ' Rowson on 07976 283 157.
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