Middleweight boxer Nathan Heaney says he will retire from the sport following his rematch with Gerome Warburton in Birmingham next month.
Heaney will take on Warburton, who upset the odds to beat him on points in Manchester in March, on the undercard of the headline bout between featherweights Liam Davies and Nathaniel Collins at Birmingham’s BP Pulse Live venue.
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The 37-year-old, who has won 19 of his 22 bouts, said that giving up the sport he aspired to compete in since he was a child will be a wrench and outlined his hopes to remain in the sport in some capacity.
“It was a very difficult decision to make,” Heaney told the BBC. “This is all I have ever dreamed of doing.
“To achieve what I always wanted to as a young lad but then to give it up… it is quite sad, but boxing has always been my passion.
“If I put the effort into anything else that I did with boxing, I’ll be OK, but it is just finding something that I will be as passionate about as I was with boxing.”
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Heaney, who intends to take his wife on the honeymoon they never had once he hangs up the gloves, also paid tribute to the supporters who have been ringside throughout his career.
“We have had some incredible nights in Stoke-on-Trent over the years, so this is one last celebration as a city to show what we are all about,” he said. “Hopefully, I can do the job.
“The fans got me here in the first place, in terms of the environment they made for me and the atmospheres at the King’s Hall.
“I proved that we belonged here when I became British champion, so we worked really well in that regard.”
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Heaney turned professional in 2017 and beat Denzel Bentley to claim the British middleweight title in 2023.
In 2025, Heaney, who walks to the ring to the tune of Tom Jones’ Delilah – a song synonymous with Stoke City FC – was inducted into Stoke-on-Trent’s sporting hall of fame.
In doing so, he joined the likes of footballers Gordon Banks and Sir Stanley Matthews, strongman Eddie Hall, athlete Jazmin Sawyers and darts legend Phil Taylor.
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