NATHAN HEANEY is the most popular British boxer you have probably never heard of.
The 33-year-old middleweight has just sold another stunning 1,300 tickets for his Saturday night showdown, making the former PE teacher one of the nation’s biggest boxing stars.
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The ticket-selling sensation has a huge following thanks to his life-long links to Stoke City football club and has made the Telford International centre a new and surprise boxing hotbed.
The popular ace takes die-hard supporters an hour down the M6 to watch his all-action displays and his iconic entrance to Potters anthem Delilah has become a viral hit.
Heaney boxed throughout most of his childhood but only turned professional at 27, with hall-of-fame promoter Frank Warren.
And between them the plan is to take a huge fight to the Bet365 stadium – an incredible turnaround after he revealed he only flogged 60 tickets for his 2017 debut.
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Ahead of his rematch with Jack Flatley – after the original September clash was cut short after five rounds due to Heaney suffering a horro cut, following an accidental clash of heads – Heaney explained his unlikely stardom.
He told SunSport: “I boxed in Bolton in my third fight, the show went out on Channel 5 but my bout was too early so wasn’t even televised.
“But my supporters stayed there to watch the televised part of the card and apparently all you could hear on the TV was ‘Delilah’ being sung over and over again.
“My social media support grew overnight then and it hasn’t really stopped. It has gone mad.
“Almost all of my fans are Stoke supporters too, so early on my manager Errol Johnson made sure most of my fights have been when we have been playing at home, so everyone can do both.”
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2Heaney started boxing under the guidance of his father Joseph, who tragically lost his battle with mental health in 2019.
Joseph’s prominent place in the Stoke City supporters’ association has contributed to Nathan’s popularity booming.
And he also made a touching prediction that has proved wonderfully poignant.
He told us: “If my dad just hung around for just a few weeks longer he would have seen us achieve so much.
“He used to tell all of his mates that I would get signed by Frank Warren, they probably all thought he was silly and so did I probably.
“But I have done it, I achieved the dream and it’s just a shame that he won’t be here to see it.
“Hopefully now I can go on to represent Stoke well, which is how my dad brought me up, then I can have a positive effect on people.
“It’s something that is private and personal to me but I would like to suggest to people suffering with mental health is that you have to try to keep going because you never know what could happen to turn things around.”
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