JAMIE Cox is ready to put a year of frustration behind him tonight when he steps back into the ring.

Having been on the verge on a world title shot earlier this year, the Swindon southpaw found his career on a hold due to well-documented troubles.

With all that now behind him, Martin Fidel Rios is the unfortunate person standing in the way of Cox as he bids to get back on the path to the top.

The fight with the Argentine was set to be for the WBO inter-continental super-middleweight over 12 rounds, however, German-based Kosovan Robin Krasniqi, a former light-heavyweight world title contender, has opted against vacating the belt.

Instead, the bout is now scheduled for 10 rounds with no belt on the line.

Despite that, Cox’s trainer John Costello is far from concerned about the late change in status to the contest, with Rios having won the WBC and IBF Latino super-middleweight belts, as well as claiming 11 stoppages in his 20 wins.

“It doesn’t matter that a title is not on the line anymore,” Costello said. “Krasniqi was, we were told, supposed to vacate, but he hasn’t.

“But the WBO have told us that the ranking that we would have got should the title have been on the line will still be the same because of the quality of the opponent.

“Frank (Warren, Cox’s promoter) was in Puerto Rico (for the annual WBO convention) and he was pushing to get Jamie to be made mandatory (for the WBO world title) should he win, or at the very least, an eliminator.”

Tonight’s bout was originally set to be on the undercard of Billy Joe Saunders’ WBO world middleweight title defence in Cardiff, however, the 2008 Olympian suffered an injury in training, forcing that show to be postponed until Saturday, November 26.

Cox’s fight, against the man going by the same moniker as the legendary Erik Morales – El Terrible – is now the joint-main event at Bolton Wanderers’ Macron Stadium.

The Steve Wood-promoted show, which will be screened live on BoxNation, will see Cox joined at the top of the bill by former IBF world bantamweight champion Paul Butler.