JAMIE Cox is hungrier than ever, according to his trainer John Costello.

The Swindon southpaw was due to make his long-awaited return to the ring over the weekend, only for the Marco Huck-Ovill McKenzie show in Frankfurt to be cancelled following the withdrawal of the British cruiserweight champion due to illness.

However, former Walcot and England amateur Cox, who secured three first round knockouts in 2015, will not have to wait long to get his career back on track after he was added to undercard of the October 22 show in Cardiff.

With his troubles of his March court case over an alleged assault now well and truly behind him, Cox’s trainer says that the 30-year-old former WBO super-middleweight champion is showing even more determination in the gym.

“We were gutted for all the people that had booked, flights, hotels and tickets to come and see Jamie in Germany – we had around 50 people going over,” Costello told the Advertiser.

“For us though it is not the end of the world because it is just four weeks. He had the weekend off and was back in the gym on Monday. You can see a difference in him now – he is hungrier than ever.

“What happened was meant to finish him, all it has done is added fuel to the fire.”

Cox will return to action in an eight-round contest before he looks to start climbing the world ranking once more.

Before the court case in March, the 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist held a world ranking of four with the WBO, 13 with the WBA and 15 with the IBF.

However, having not fought since November last year, Cox has since dropped out of the top 15 with all of the governing bodies.

“Jamie is in the ‘who needs him club’,” Costello said. “We have to work to get Jamie into a mandatory position so that he can fight the top names in the super-middleweight division.

“Once we get Cardiff out of the way Jamie should get his world ranking back. He wants to fight the top names - Callum Smith, George Groves, Martin Murray – but they don’t want to fight him.”