Jamie Cox (boxer)

Jamie Cox
Statistics
Real name	James Simon Russan
Rated at	Super middleweight
Height	5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Nationality	British
Born	24 August 1986 Swindon, Wiltshire, England
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	20
Wins	20
Wins by KO	12
Losses	0
Medal record Men's boxing Representing  England Commonwealth Games Melbourne 2006 Light welterweight

James Simon Russan (born 24 August 1986), best known as Jamie Cox,^[1] is a British professional boxer. As an amateur, he won a gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.^[2]

Amateur career

Cox was a standout amateur who boxed for the Walcot ABA club in Swindon. Boxing at light welterweight, he won the 2005 ABA championships^[3] and won Gold for England in the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He claimed the gold medal in Melbourne by means of a walkover when his opponent Moses Kopo of Lesotho pulled out of the final. Former world champion Richie Woodhall commentating at the games said "He won't have fancied taking him on...he'll have known that Cox was favourite and he could really hurt him."^[4] Jamie chose to turn pro in February 2007 and signed for Frank Warren. It was also announced at the time that Woodhall would be his trainer.^[5]

Professional career

In July 2007 Jamie made his professional debut at the O2 Arena with a unanimous 4 round points victory over journeyman Johnny Greaves and fought 3 more times that year to end 2007 with a record of 4-0. By October 2008 that record had stretched to 8-0, a milestone achieved whilst fighting in his home city of Swindon for the first time as a professional. Cox defeated the tough and experienced journeyman Billy Smith, stopping him in the 5th round in front of 1500 fans.^[6] Cox finished the year on a high, when on 6 December and fighting at the Excel Arena in London's Docklands he scored a first round knockout over the normally durable journeyman Ernie Smith.

In February 2009 Cox boxed in Swindon for the second time, scoring a first round knockout of Doncaster's Jason Rushton. After the fight Cox said that he would like to meet reigning British champion Kell Brook by the end of the year.^[7] On 24 April Cox defeated Mark Lloyd at the civic hall in Wolverhampton eventually stopping the Shropshire man in the 8th and final round despite being behind on the referee's points card at the time.^[8] Cox returned to Swindon on 25 July 2009 and boxed another 8 rounds defeating the Hungarian journeyman Janos Petrovics for a wide points win and finished off the year with a victory over Worksop based Iranian Manoocha Salari.

Cox's first fight of 2010 took place at the Wembley Arena on 13 February, scoring an 8 round victory of Mauritius's London based fighter Michael Frontin. The points win of 78-76 branded Cox's trainer Paddy Fitzpatrick to label the performance "undisciplined" and gave him a "5 out of 10" rating because he hadn't done "what I asked him to".^[9] Despite the performance however Cox was promised an eliminator for Brook's British title against fellow contender Mark Thompson, a man boasting a record of 23 wins with just the one defeat.^[10]

Assault charge

On 2 March 2010, Cox was found guilty by a jury of assaulting a man outside a Swindon bar. Speaking of the event which happened during a night out, Cox told the jury "I feel terrible, I deserve everything I get from it." The incident had followed an argument with a man whom Cox alleged had verbally abused him before the men got into what Cox described as a "little tussle". Sentencing was set for 25 March 2010,^[11] with Cox receiving a suspended sentence of six months and ordered to pay compensation, court costs and community service of 250 hours.^[12]

Return to the ring

Cox returned to the ring after almost 15 months with the decision to step up from welterweight to light middleweight and also taking on a new trainer, John Costello.^[13] Speaking of the move up in weight Costello said "he’s better conditioned at this weight, he’ll be stronger and faster. He won’t struggle to make the weight anymore so those problems are behind us know and he can eat properly."^[13] Speaking of his time out of the ring Costello, who runs the Chelmsley Wood Boxing Club, said of Cox "I think over the last 12 months Jamie has grown a lot mentally. He has made mistakes, admitted that and he’ll never get sucked into that kind of temptation again. He’s now with us in Birmingham and he’s comfortable here...He’s away from Swindon and all the distractions so that can only be good for his boxing career."^[13] On 21 May 2011 Cox celebrated victory at The O2 Arena in London beating Marcus Portman with a third round stoppage and claiming that he was ready to fight for the British title.^[14] On 9 September 2011 Cox headlined the annual Debra charity boxing event and won a highly controversial decision to pick up the Commonwealth light middleweight title beating Ghanain Obodai Sai despite having two points deducted for low blows.^[15] In March 2016 Cox was found guilty of beating and verbally abusing his ex-girlfriend.

References

1. "RUSSAN James Simon". Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Corporation. Retrieved 8 August 2014. Competing in Melbourne 2006 as James RUSSAN (also known as Jamie COX)
2. "Jamie Cox professional record". Boxrec.
3. "ABA tournament results 2000's". ABAE.
4. "Cox wins Commonwealth gold". Swindonweb.com.
5. "Boxer Cox turns pro". This is Wiltshire.
6. "Cox maintains unbeaten record". BBC Sport.
7. "Cox obliterates Rushton". Boxingnews24.
8. "Heartbreak for boxing's Lloyd". Shropshire Star.
9. "Just 5 out of 10 for Cox". Swindon Advertiser.
10. "Cox to box for British title...after elimator". Swindon Advertiser.
11. "Cox found guilty of assaulting man outside Swindon bar". Swindon Advertiser.
12. "Boxer looks ahead after conviction". Swindon Advertiser.
13. "My man can be world champion says Costello". Swindon Advertiser.
14. "Cox wants british title after Portman win". Swindon Advertisher.
15. "Charity all round as Cox wins highly dubious verdict". Boxrec.