The 28-year-old made three successful defences against fellow Scot Ricky Burns, Sergey Gulyakevich and Sergio Palomo, the most recent coming by way of a fifth-round stoppage at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall on November 7.

Sports Network promoter Warren declined to put in a purse bid for a mandatory defence against Portugal’s Antonio Bento, believing another battle on the European stage would be pointless.

Warren said he will manoeuvre Arthur down a different road in his quest for a world title.

He said: “With respect to the European title, we have taken that as far as we can.

“We had a discussion and came to a mutual conclusion that Alex would vacate it.

“The Portuguese fighter who he was set to meet in his next fight has been beaten by Sinitsin, so we think that the European title has served its purpose.

“He will fight some time in late February. We don’t know what kind of fight it will be but it will be with a view to a world-title fight in the near future.

“It’s not a gamble at all to drop the European belt. I’ve made world-title fights with boxers who weren’t even British champions, people like Frank Bruno, Ricky Hatton and Naseem Hamed, so that is not a problem.

“We will keep our options open but his next fight will probably be down south.

“There is nothing in that decision. We have had Amir Khan in Glasgow fighting.

“We like to take our boxers around the place and build up their profile.”

Arthur is in the top-15 rankings of the four major world bodies.

He is rated number three by the World Boxing Association (WBA) and the World Boxing Organisation (WBO), number five by the World Boxing Council (WBC) and number 13 by the International Boxing Federation (IBF).

Some reports suggest IBF champion Malcolm Klassen of South Africa could travel to Scotland to defend his title against the Edinburgh boxer, a potential fight Arthur has welcomed.