Only one fight will stop ticket-seller Nathan Heaney from announcing his retirement

Nathan Heaney has spent years delivering tickets around his hometown. This week, he delivered his last.

Heaney has made a name for himself in his beloved Stoke-on Trent with his famous ringwalk to Tom Jones’ Delilah and often bringing thousands of fans with him up and down the country to join him in song. Heaney, or “The Hitman” as he is known around Stoke, has sold over 20,000 tickets across his career, delivering most of them by hand himself, and will have over 1,600 fans present to witness his swansong on Saturday night – some have even travelled from Germany to be there in person.

“Now normally I'm absolutely buzzing when I deliver my last ticket, but these sadly are the last ever tickets,” Heaney told BoxingScene ahead of his final delivery. “They've made some amazing nights, and I think it's one of them. I don't think they realise what they've got until it's gone. I think the atmosphere and so on we bring are very, very unique.”

Heaney’s wins and walk to the ring have seen the crowd grow larger over the years, but Heaney has established himself as far more than just a ticketseller. Heaney shocked many when he was able to defeat the now-WBO middleweight beltholder Denzel Bentley over 12 rounds to become British champion back in 2023. 

By his own admission, Heaney had achieved more than he ever thought possible that night, and has never since been able to reach those heights, winning just once in his next five. 

This has led to Heaney, 19-2-1 (6 KOs), deciding this Saturday’s bout at Birmingham’s BP Pulse LIVE will be last. The 37-year-old will take on Wales’ Gerome Warburton, who pipped Heaney back in March, in a hope of righting that wrong and sailing off into the sunset with a win.

“I won't be coming back, you've got to be content with what you've done and you've also got to know what you can actually do,” Heaney admitted. “I'm 37 years old, can I give one more great performance? I can. Can I do it again? I'm not too sure, so that's the thing.”

Although Heaney is heading into the unknown of retirement, there is a sense of fulfillment knowing he achieved far more than he set out to do when he decided to leave his job as a teacher at 27 and turn professional.

“I thought, if I don't turn professional now, I might regret it. I used to have about five people that went to watch my amateur fights, one of them was my dad, one was my girlfriend, who's now my wife, and one was my mate. 

“I thought, ‘Just do it, if you don't sell any tickets, at least you've got no regrets.’ I turned professional in 2017, I sold 60 tickets, which is not a lot, but then fortunately for me, it just went slowly up each time, and as you see, it just exploded over the years.

“I was a massively underachieving amateur, in fact a nothingness amateur. I think I won one Midlands Area title in 16 years, which is really poor to be fair. So to then become the British middleweight champion, to have won a number of international titles along the way, ranked number four in the world with the WBO, yeah, I've done everything really.”

Although Heaney had little luck claiming the Midlands title as an amateur, his win over Tom Stokes in 2019 for the belt as a professional pushed him onto towards televised shows and a deal with Hall of Fame promoter Frank Warren was his

“It was just an amazing fight,” Heaney recalled. “I hurt him in the first round, he hurt me in the second round, I hurt him in the third round, he hurt me in the fourth round. Then I started taking over the fight after that, but it was nominated Fight of the Year for the Midlands.

“And that's when it snowballed a little bit then, because the next fight was on Zolani Tete's undercard in Birmingham on TV. I wasn't signed, and then I was back on the small hall, and then it just grew and grew until obviously I sold the Kings Hall out and that’s the video that went viral of the walkout, and then I got signed by Frank Warren.”

After witnessing thousands singing him to the ring over the last few years, Heaney must now, as all fighters must do, come to terms with life as a civilian.

So, how will he spend his time and earn a living with boxing in the past?

“I've got different things I possibly could do,” said Heaney. “It's a very scary thing because there's nothing concrete there, but yeah, there's different things. I mean worst-case scenario I could go back into teaching, but I don't think I ever would, but there's a lot of things I could do here and there hopefully.”

“I love coffee, so let's see what I can do with that, if I can do anything at all. Like I've always said, if I put my mind into anything, if I put my effort into anything like boxing, I'll be okay. So we'll just see what happens.”

Although Heaney has accepted it is the right time to retire he nonetheless admitted there would be only one fight that could tempt him to lace the gloves again.

“Make no mistake, if you're top 15 in the world and you were offered the opportunity to be the first Stokie to have ever fought for a world title, yeah [I’d take it],” he said. “Well, we'll cross that bridge when it comes down to it, but until that bridge presents itself, I will be retiring.”