‘I should’ve hit him hard’… Nathan Heaney reveals the toughest boxer he’s ever sparred ahead of his final fight

EXCLUSIVE: Nathan Heaney has sparred many top-class fighters, but one stands out from the pack.

On Saturday evening, with Tom Jones’ Delilah blasting through the bp Pulse in Birmingham, UK, the Stoke legend will make his final walk to the ring to take on Gerome Warburton in a highly anticipated rematch.

Nathan Heaney says Liam Williams is the best professional boxer he’s ever sparred

Nathan Heaney has carved out a fantastic legacy in boxing, from producing a sensational display at the Danish Box Cup as an amateur, to overcoming Denzel Bentley to claim the British middleweight title.

Throughout his time in the sport, he’s shared the ring with many a talented fighter in sparring. And while he gives a Liverpudlian credit for pushing him during their amateur days, in the paid ranks, there’s only one man who can claim to have given Heaney his toughest spar.

In an exclusive interview with Sporf, he reminisced: “I had my eyes opened. I’ve sparred some very good lads. The best as an amateur was Anthony Fowler, but as a professional, it was Liam Williams. The key characteristic that they both had was that they were both absolute killers. When I sparred Fowler, he was trying to batter me.

“With Liam Williams, I remember thinking, ‘Don’t hit him too hard, so then he won’t hit you too hard’. It’s stupid to think that. I should’ve hit him hard, because he tried to destroy me. He probably wasn’t trying that hard, but it felt like he was. That was probably two or three years before I won the British title, and you hear about levels to the game, and he put it on me that day, and I thought I’m nowhere near, but then, as the years went on, I got better.”

Nathan Heaney predicts revenge against Gerome Warburton

While Heaney fell short in his first showdown against Warburton, with his army of Stoke fans cheering him on, he has full faith that he has the skills to ensure that it will be his hand raised in the rematch.

The 37-year-old enthused: “My first fight with Warburton: he boxed well, but I didn’t. I think that was the key component of it; it was just my poor performance, so it’s up to me to rectify it. Whether I can do that or not, we’ll soon find out, but I believe I will, and that’s why I’ve taken the fight. I want to correct the mistakes of the first fight.”

Featured Image Credit: Getty