Nathan Heaney open to retirement after defeat by Brad Pauls

Nathan Heaney has not ruled out retirement after losing his British middleweight title to Brad Pauls.

Heaney’s dream of fighting in his beloved Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium appears in tatters after he was stopped in his rematch with Pauls by a barrage of punches in the 12th round. Heaney handed over his British title in front of 2,000 of his fans and it could even prove the last time that they see the now-former champion in a boxing ring.

The 35-year-old was emotional after recording his first loss as a professional. He acknowledged that he has achieved more as a professional than he had ever thought likely, and despite Pauls having spoken about his willingness to consider a trilogy, Heaney when asked about the possibility of retirement refused to rule it out as an option.

“From someone who achieved nothing as an amateur, I did become the British champion and the WBA continental champion and got ranked top five in the world,” he told Boxing Social. “It’s been good so far but that’s see what happens [with retirement].

“From the age of maybe four years old, I’ve been boxing. There’s a picture of me as a one-year-old kid on a boxing bean bag. My dad was a former amateur boxer – he’s had me boxing since I could stand. I’ve been in the boxing gym from the age of nine years old; I’m 35 now; I’ve done it for many years. I’ve been competing from the age of 11 and I did that until the age of 26, had a year out, and retired from amateur boxing.

“I thought to myself, ‘Just turn professional, even if it’s on the small hall scene’. Then going for my debut where I boxed on some bill in Walsall, in some food hall – 60 people came.

“Then fast forward a few years and there’s thousands of people supporting me every fight. It’s something I could never have imagined, but something I did dream about, but never thought it would be possible.”