COACH Tony Borg says fighting wasn’t “worth the risk” for Jamie Cox after flu caused him to pull out of his bout in Italy on Friday, writes Matthew Davies.

The Swindon southpaw was due to have his first outing since last May - Cox was knocked out by John at London's O2 - on Matchroom Italy’s show in Milan.

However, Cox, who is trained by Borg at St Joseph’s Boxing Club in Newport, will now look to make his comeback later in the spring.

Borg says that the 32-year-old, who was moving down to middleweight for his Italian job, couldn’t afford a below-par performance so pulled the plug on the contest.

“I said to Jamie that I didn’t see the point in him going over to Italy because he cannot afford to have a bad night,” said Borg.

“I don’t think there was much use in him going there and making up excuses the next day and saying that he shouldn’t have fought. I’d rather he just didn’t go.

“It’s definitely not worth the risk and he’ll soon be back on form. Now we are looking to get him back out in early April.”

He added: “He’s had a lot to take on in the last few months – he’s going down in weight, he’s had the flu twice and his partner has just had a baby too.”

Borg also revealed that a long-standing ear problem could have played a part in Cox’s second-round knockout at the hands of Ryder last year.

“He’s had a problem with his ears and it goes back some time,” he said. “When you were talking to him, unless he was looking at you, he wasn’t responding.

“He went to have them seen to and he had rock hard wax pushed down into his ears.

“I told him he just couldn’t fight like that because your balance and everything is connected to your ears.

“I was looking at the John Ryder fight and when he got hit it didn’t really make much sense, so I’m wondering if he’s had this problem for a while.”

Cox and his team are now working with promoters Matchroom to arrange his next fight.