"Delusional" Nathan Heaney shelving retirement plans as he continues to pursue "fantasy" bet365 Stadium fight

Former British middleweight champion Nathan Heaney has revealed he is continuing to chase a "fantasy" bet365 Stadium fight despite succumbing to a second professional defeat at the hands of Gerome Warburton last month.

The Stoke-on-Trent star was stunned by Welshman Warburton in Manchester nine days ago, relinquishing early control on proceedings before all three judges edged in favour of the pre-fight underdog to leave the 37-year-old contemplating his future in the sport.

Heaney had hoped victory at the Co-op Live would propel him back in position for a lucrative rematch with Denzel Bentley and a potential shot at the Londoner's recently acquired WBO interim world title.

However, hopes of securing a second date with the WBO's 160lbs number one ranked contender have seemingly evaporated as a consequence of his latest defeat, with the Staffordshire man even hinting at retirement when speaking immediately after the bout.

Heaney has now played down talk of imminently calling time on his career though, telling bet365 that he still harbours hopes of fulfilling his lifelong dream of fighting at the home of his beloved football club, Stoke City, despite his latest painful setback.

“I can’t give up on it, I just can’t," he revealed to the bet365 Sports & Betting News site on Monday.

The ideal and dream scenario for me now is that my final fight as a professional boxer is staged at the ground (the bet365 Stadium).

- Nathan Heaney (Former British middleweight champion)

"Of course I have got to see what the plans are with Frank [Warren] and Queensberry now and see what can happen and what can’t happen.

“I haven’t spoken to them since the fight but I have had a week off now, I have been away, will have the rest of this week off and then I will be getting my head down again and start to rebuild.

"Losing to Gerome [Warburton] was a nightmare for me, because of the potential of the fight with Denzel Bentley for the WBO world title.

"That may not have happened, but the opportunity was there for that to happen, and that, obviously, could have taken place at the stadium, which is the big goal I still have in my career.

"I can’t dwell on that now though, I’ve got to speak to Frank and the rest of the team and see what route there is left to take, and then take it from there."

Heaney was the well-backed favourite to overcome Warburton and ignite a charge towards a potential future world title opportunity.

The Staffordshire-based fighter had previously stunned current WBO 'interim' champion Denzel Bentley to land the coveted British title, and tee-up a rumoured showdown with WBC middleweight ruler Carlos Adames in the Potteries during the summer of 2024.

Complications in sourcing an adequate date with Stoke City Football Club were understood to have derailed those plans though, with Heaney subsequently being held to a controversial draw by Brad Pauls, before being beaten by him in the rematch a few months later.

“It’s incredibly difficult to look back at things and my position in the middleweight rankings a couple of years ago and look at where I am now," he added.

“I’ve gone from being top of the world and on the brink of a world title fight at the stadium to feeling really frustrated about things, and probably at one of the lowest points of my career.

“Even now, take the Carlos Adames world title fight out of the equation, which was a potential possibility in 2024, if I had beaten Gerome [Warburton] then there was a chance of a rematch with Denzel Bentley for the world title.

“I knew he would beat Endry Saavedra at the weekend and become the WBO’s interim champion, and the carrot for me was that if I could have beaten Gerome, who, no disrespect, I know I should be beating, then that fight was there for me too.

“It would have been a massive rematch for, maybe, the full world title. So to lose against Gerome, who is an ok fighter – let’s be honest – and now miss that chance again is gutting, it really is.”

Despite that, Heaney is still adamant that his army of supporters would turn up in vast numbers to pack out the bet365 Stadium, regardless of whether world championship gold was on the line or not.

“I am still delusional enough to believe that I can still get a huge stadium fight!" he went on to say.

Even though I have now lost my last few fights, I am selling more tickets than ever before, and I know the people of Stoke-on-Trent are still right behind me.

- Nathan Heaney (Former British middleweight champion)

“Even over the last week or so, since the fight, I have been bombarded by supporters sending me incredible messages, willing me to keep going, and how can I ignore that, especially when I still have this burning desire inside of me to fulfil this lifelong, pipe-dream of mine!

“Everybody in boxing knows what my big goal is, I have banged the drum about it for so long now – I want to box at the bet365 Stadium, at the home of my beloved football club, and I can’t just give up on that dream.

“Time is against me, I know that – I was 37 on Saturday, so I don’t have the time to go back to the drawing board, rebuild for a year and then get ready to go again, I understand that time is against me here.

“But, I am still not going to give up on this. I’ve worked so, so hard over the past six or seven years, and even if the chances of me fulfilling it are diminishing, I won’t accept defeat in my pursuit of it.”