Nathan Heaney was honest enough to know that a defeat to Grant Dennis in July would have spelled the end for him.

Following stoppage losses to both Brad Pauls and Sofiane Khati inside the space of seven months, the family man from Stoke, England knew his career was on the line versus Dennis at Kings Hall in his home city.

“I thought to myself, ‘Have I still got it?,’ ” Heaney told The Ring. “Have I even still got a chin? I’d been put on my backside two fights in a row and I’m thinking, ‘What’s going on here?’ I could have retired after the Khati fight and my coach, Steve Woodvine, might have wanted that to happen as well. Not because he didn’t believe in me, but because he didn’t want me to get hurt in the boxing ring. But then I said, ‘Just give me one more fight. Let me just fight at the Kings Hall again.’ ”

So, the date of July 26 was set for Heaney’s final throw of the dice. He would return to Stoke’s Kings Hall for the first time in five years, when his iconic ring walk ahead of a points win over Christian Schembri had gone viral.

Since that outing, he had boxed 11 more times, headlined television shows and become British middleweight champion. That famous ring walk, to Tom Jones’ song and Stoke City anthem “Delilah,” had lit up arenas in Birmingham, Manchester and London, but it was all back to the Potteries for what might have been Heaney’s swansong against Dennis (19-18, 3 KOs).

“Everything about that show was what I had envisioned for my last ever fight,” Heaney explained. “Back at the Kings where it all started. I even called the show ‘Forgive Me Delilah,’ because the next line of the song is, ‘I just couldn’t take any more.’ ”

As it turned out, Heaney (19-1-1, 6 KOs, 1 NC) boxed well against Dennis, had his chin checked along the way and ran out a clear winner on points after eight rounds. Then, less than a month later, his defeat to Khati was changed to a no-contest after the Frenchman tested positive for a banned substance. Suddenly things were not quite so stark for Heaney.

“That one against Dennis was not a farewell fight but a test to see where I was,” he added. “If I had lost, it was over, but fortunately I was OK, so I’m here now; I’m back.”

The next stage of his redemption arc will take place on January 24 at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena on the undercard of the Queensberry show headlined by Moses Itauma’s clash with Jermaine Franklin, live on DAZN. Heaney will face compatriot Gerome Warburton (16-2-2, 2 KOs) over 10 crucial rounds in the context of his career.

However, he believes he will go into the fight with a secret weapon born out of that July return to the King’s Hall.

“Because it could have been my last fight, I also had my eldest daughter, Ava, there,” the dad of two said. “I wanted her to experience it and it turns out she absolutely loved it. Now I want her to come to this one, too. There could be over 20,000 people in the Co-op Live Arena, with 3,000 Stokies there to support me.

“It will be a totally different experience to the Kings Hall. She’ll see the cameras and everything else. I think it’s a good memory for her to have. And one thing is for sure – I’m not losing in front of my daughter, mate.”

It is now two years and one month since Heaney produced the performance of his career to upset huge favourite Denzel Bentley to win the British title across the city at Manchester’s AO Arena. It was a win which was supposed to catapult him to bigger and better things, but he described the 12 months that followed, which included a draw and then a loss to Pauls, as the worst of his career.

“That draw messed everything up,” Heaney says. “Because I was booked to fight in Stoke in the summer of 2024, but that went up in smoke. Then he stopped me in the rematch.”

That reference to fighting in Stoke was not to Kings Hall, but rather the home of his beloved Stoke City, bet365 Stadium (formerly known as Britannia Stadium). Although he found himself just one poor performance against Dennis away from retiring completely, he can now see a path back to his dream fight on the pitch.

“Look, if I win here, I get the world ranking back,” Heaney says of his clash with Warburton. “Then why can I not do this? George Warren said to me if we do 15,000 tickets, everyone’s happy. But they could put me against a binman, and we could sell 15,000 tickets at Stoke. There are 3,000 coming up to Manchester to watch me fight Gerome Warburton, who most of them have never heard of.

“But if we fight at Stoke, it won’t be a binman, it will be someone good, so we will do 20,000-plus. It has never happened before and people would turn out for it. But all I need to worry about right now is winning this and putting in a good performance, which will put the pressure on Stoke City. I’m not looking too far ahead, but it feels good to be back in the hunt.”