JAMIE Cox is hoping that his WBO super-middleweight European title fight will help catapult him to a shot at the world crown.

The Swindon southpaw, who has won all 18 of his professional fights, collides with Lee Markham at Wembley Arena on Friday, July 24 on the undercard of Frank Buglioni’s WBA ‘regular’ super-middleweight title bout with Fedor Chudinov.

2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Cox will hope that defeating Markham, who drew with Buglioni in his last outing for the European belt, will earn him shot for top.

While the WBO European belt is lightly regarded, Buglioni is not the only Brit who has won that title and then gone on to secure a world title fight.

Lightweight Terry Flanagan defeated Stephen Ormond in February at the Wolverhampton Civic, when Cox appeared on the undercard, to win the European belt and, on July 11, he faces Jose Zepeda for the vacant WBO world title.

“This will give me a world ranking and that is something I have been after for a long time,” Cox said.

"I'm hoping that this will help get me get a shot at a world title.

“After I win this belt then I can move on to bigger things, there have been talks about potentially facing the winner of Buglioni-Chudinov, nothing serious, but that is a possibility.”

Undefeated Cox goes into the fight having knocked out Alistair Warren in one round as he moved up to middleweight for the first time.

But after spending the spring sparring the likes of Mexican star Saul Alvarez and American super-middleweight Dennis Douglin, the former Commonwealth light-middleweight champion returned to the UK and sparred James DeGale ahead of his successful IBF world title bid and he will step up to the hotly contested 168lb division.

“I have no worries about moving up to super-middleweight – it is only eight pounds and I’m a big eater,” Cox said.

“I don’t care what weight it is at I just want to be in the big fights.

“I respect Lee Markham – he’s a good fighter. But I’ll just focus on myself and get the job done.”