JOHN Costello says that there is not a super-middleweight in the world that can live with Jamie Cox.

The Swindon southpaw’s trainer believes it is only a matter of time before his man is sitting at the top of the 12 stone division.

With number one Andre Ward expected to permanently make the move to the light-heavyweight division, Great Britain’s 2012 Olympic gold medallist and current IBF world champion, James DeGale, is widely regarded the heir apparent to 168lb throne.

However, with Cox closing in on a world title shot following his third successive first-round stoppage last Saturday to defend his WBO European title, his Birmingham-based trainer Costello is confident that the 29-year-old will be crowned the king.

“(WBO champion) Arthur Abraham is fighting Martin Murray and the winner then has to defend against (WBO number one contender) Gilberto Ramirez next so that takes them out of the equation for a little while,” Costello said.

“A title fight with (WBC champion) Badou Jack would be great, a fight with (WBA champion) Fedor Chudinov would be great too – the WBA recognise the WBO rankings so that is a viable option.

“After Jamie wins a world title then we can start looking at a big unification fight with James DeGale.

“There isn’t anyone in the 12 stone division that can live with Jamie, I really do believe that.”

Cox has made great strides in 2015 after returning to the ring in February following a 20-month period of inactivity due to injuries.

In his first fight back, the former Commonwealth light-middleweight champion required just two-and-a-half minutes to dispatch Alistair Warren in Wolverhampton.

Cox then faced Blas Miguel Martinez in July for the vacant WBO European belt at Wembley and he needed 16 seconds less than his previous outing to get rid of the Spaniard.

The former Walcot and England amateur’s promoter Frank Warren, who told the Advertiser this week that Cox will fight for a world title in 2016, then set about finding a tougher opponent for his man.

However, despite offering the fight to Chris Eubank Jr, Gary O’Sullivan and Ramirez, all of whom refused to take the fight, the only person man enough to face him was Ferenc Albert.

But Cox’s power was too much for the Hungarian and he was flat on his back after 68 seconds having previously been on the canvas 30 seconds earlier as the Swindon fighter claimed his third first round stoppage of the year.

“Jamie is not struggling to make the weight anymore, he is in a division that is natural for him,” Costello said.

“I’m not surprised that he has brought the power up with him and we are just going to keep doing what we are doing.

“At the moment we are working towards a possible world title eliminator in the new year, but if the right opportunity comes along we would have no problem in getting Jamie out before Christmas.”