The thought of walking away from the sport is a daunting one for Josh Warrington.

Warrington, a former featherweight titleholder, will return to the ring Saturday in Sheffield, England, after a short-lived retirement. He made the decision to call it a career after his defeat to Anthony Cacace last September – his third successive loss after having also lost to Leigh Wood and Luis Alberto Lopez.

Warrington indicated his retirement by laying down his gloves in the center of the ring and waving to his traveling fans before heading to the locker room following the Cacace fight. Many thought it would be the last time Warrington would be seen in a boxing ring, but the 34-year-old has made a U-turn on his retirement decision, believing he still has more to give.

“After the performance, I just felt someone was missing,” Warrington told BoxingScene. “Without analyzing it, I kind of rushed into the decision [to retire]. So I was about to get out of the ring; Cacace’s team were doing a picture and all, buzzing and celebrating.

“And then as they got out, I just walked over to the center ring, lay them down because I thought, That's it, I'm done. I did a bit of a lap of honor around the ring. And, you know, that was it. Like, I walked out and I said to my manager, Eddie [Hearn] and Frank [Smith], ‘I'm done.’ And I thought I was, I thought I was. I thought that it'd gone – it wasn't there. The fire wasn't there anymore. 

“But I wasn’t actually analyzing it. And then a bit of a morbid sign, a bit of sulking, a bit of crying. A bit of just being a lazy bastard at all. And the weeks went by and I got back into the gym. I did a bit of working out and, like, physically, I feel great, man. I feel unbelievable. So I did a bit of sparring. Bloody hell, I'm not too bad here, you know what I mean? I was sparring these guys, some of my gym mates coming into fights.

“So I've been chatting with my family. I've been chatting with my missus. I've been chatting with my dad [Warrington’s trainer]. I've been chatting with my manager and the team. And, they’re like, ‘What else have you got left to prove?’ I’m trying to explain my mentality of, like, I need to go out on my terms. I need to do it on my terms. And knowing that there is more in there, I have to go again. And they're right behind me, and here we are.”

Warrington admitted that the thought of walking away from the sport that he has given his life to since he was a child haunts him. Many fighters struggle to fill the void that boxing leaves in their souls; nothing ever quite lives up to fighting under the bright lights. And after seeking advice from fellow retired pros, Warrington decided he still has more left.

“It scares me, retirement,” Warrington said. “I've mentioned this many times, and I always talk about it, like, and I shouldn't really, because you can just enjoy what's going on. But, you know, I ask other athletes how they've coped with retiring and stuff like that. And a lot of them struggle – struggle mentally, struggle physically. You dedicate your life, you shape your life around it for a dream, for a vision. And, yeah, all of a sudden that structure, everything that you've ever done just stops.

“And this is not something that I just started doing last week. I've been doing this sport since I was six years old. And people might say, ‘You're a kid, it doesn't matter then.’ But no, no, no, no, my decisions as a kid were even implemented by boxing. So instead of, like, ‘Come on, Josh, we're going to chip in for some tins of carling. Are you getting some?’ I'll go to this house party like, ‘No mate, I'll have some water,’ you know? ‘Are you getting a bus?’ ‘Nah, I'll run, I'll meet you up there.’

‘You'll be all sweaty when you get there?’ ‘It is what it is, you know?’ So it's kind of dictated my life throughout, and all of a sudden – bam – it stops. And like I said, I've spoken to many other boxers who have since retired and said to me, ‘Yeah, I train, I manage. Is it the same thing? Nah, it's nowhere near it.’ It's the closest thing, too. Don't get me wrong – it's a close thing, too, but it's nowhere near you doing it yourself. But I do realize that I'll have to call it a day eventually – but just not yet.”