Nathan Heaney has announced he will retire from boxing after his rematch with Gerome Warburton in Birmingham next month, telling the BBC the decision was a difficult one to reach (BBC Sport).

The fight, set to air live on DAZN, sits on the undercard of a featherweight headline bout between Liam Davies and Nathaniel Collins at the BP Pulse Live venue (BBC Sport; DAZN). For Heaney, it is the opening leg of a farewell tour he has been planning for months. Speaking in March, he said he made the year of his planned retirement his last so he could "put everything into it," and that his dream was to fight in Stoke (DAZN).

The rematch carries a genuine grudge. Warburton upset the odds to beat Heaney on points in Manchester in March, breaking the Stoke fighter's nose in the fifth round (BBC Sport; BBC Sport live coverage). Heaney will want to set the record straight before hanging up the gloves.

At 37, Heaney leaves behind a career that began late by professional standards. He turned professional in 2017 and won his first title in 2019 (BBC Sport). His standout night came in 2023, when he beat Denzel Bentley to claim the British middleweight title — the domestic crown that every British middleweight chases. He also held the WBA Continental middleweight belt, a regional title that sits a tier below a world championship (BBC Sport; Instagram). His professional record stands at 19 wins from 22 bouts (BBC Sport).

Few fighters are as closely tied to a place as Heaney is to Stoke-on-Trent. He walks to the ring to the tune of Tom Jones' "Delilah," the anthem sung at Stoke City FC matches, and the crowd that follows him brings the atmosphere of a football terrace into the boxing hall (BBC Sport). In 2025, the city recognised that bond by inducting him into Stoke-on-Trent's sporting hall of fame (BBC Sport).

Once the final bell rings and the gloves come off for good, Heaney has plans beyond the ring. He intends to take his wife on the honeymoon they never had (BBC Sport). A career that started in the small halls will end on a televised card in Birmingham, with one last score to settle along the way.