{"id":395144,"date":"2026-01-06T10:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395144\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T10:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T10:49:10","slug":"what-happened-to-prince-naseem-hamed-true-story-behind-boxing-biopic-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395144\/","title":{"rendered":"What happened to Prince Naseem Hamed? True story behind boxing biopic Giant"},"content":{"rendered":"

British boxing icon Prince Naseem “Naz” Hamed<\/a> is the latest sports star to receive the big-screen treatment.<\/p>\n

New biopic Giant<\/a>, which is due to be released on 9 January, tells the rags-to-riches story of how Hamed went from an underdog fighter to a world champion.<\/p>\n

The Crown star Amir El-Masry steps into the ring to play the Sheffield boxer, with James Bond’s Pierce Brosnan starring as his longtime trainer<\/a>. Rocky himself, Sylvester Stallone, is involved behind the scenes as a producer.<\/p>\n

The action-packed feature has all the makings of a British hit, but what’s the true story behind Hamed’s rise to the top of his game?<\/p>\n

What is Giant about?\"Brendan<\/p>\n

The real-life Prince Naseem Hamed and Brendan Ingle. (Getty)<\/p>\n

Giant tells the remarkable true story of Hamed’s career and his relationship with his trainer, former steelworker Brendan Ingle, as the pair took the boxing world by storm.<\/p>\n

It’s an underdog tale that illustrates Hamed’s struggles growing up in working-class Sheffield, as well as the issues that came with pursuing his sporting dreams.<\/p>\n

As the movie’s official synopsis explains, Hamed and Ingle’s unlikely partnership “propelled them to the top of boxing’s elite and unprecedented levels of global superstardom” against the backdrop of “the rampant Islamophobia and racism of ’80s and ’90s Britain”.<\/p>\n

Who is Prince Naseem Hamed?\"Naseem<\/p>\n

Hamed (right) exchanges punches with Manuel Calvo during their IBO Featherweight title contest. (Getty)<\/p>\n

Hamed was born to Yemeni parents in Sheffield in 1974. One of eight siblings, he grew up above a corner shop in the suburb of Wincobank.<\/p>\n

His journey to sporting glory began at the age of seven. After being introduced to boxing by his father, he made his first visit to Ingle’s boxing gym, located in an old church hall.<\/p>\n

The Irish trainer struck up a close bond with Hamed, who became his protege. Ingle later claimed he knew the youngster “was special” when he saw him fighting back against bullies in the school playground. “Nobody could touch him,” he said.<\/p>\n

Hamed was “brilliant from the start” and had “poise like a veteran”, according to The Independent<\/a>‘s boxing journalist Steve Bunce, who watched him train as an 11-year-old.<\/p>\n

Under Ingle’s tutelage, the prodigy became a European champion at the age of 20 and a world champion just a year later, propelling him to global fame.<\/p>\n

‘Prince Naz’ became known for his showboating style and leopard-print trunks. In one of his most memorable ring walks, he danced to Michael Jackson’s Thriller surrounded by mock gravestones. On another occasion, he entered the ring on a flying carpet.<\/p>\n

When and why did Hamed retire?\"Former<\/p>\n

Hamed left prison after serving 16 weeks of a 15-month sentence for dangerous driving. (PA via Getty)<\/p>\n

Hamed retired in 2002, at the age of just 28, due to a hand injury. He won 36 fights in his decade-long pro career, losing just once.<\/p>\n

He later told BBC 5Live: “I needed cortisone injections to take away the pain when I fought, then after every fight the gloves would be whipped off and my hands would be as big as balloons.<\/p>\n

“It was getting ridiculous, and you can’t go on with no ammunition. I was one of the hardest punchers ever known, but if the hands are quite brittle and you do damage, then it’s hard to carry on.”<\/p>\n

The boxer had a drastic fall from grace after retirement. He was jailed in 2006<\/a> and stripped of his MBE<\/a> after crashing his \u00a3300,000 sports car. Another driver, Anthony Burgin, was left badly injured, suffering fractures to every major bone in his body.<\/p>\n

Hamed was released after serving 16 weeks of a 15-month sentence, and was driven away from court in a Rolls-Royce.<\/p>\n

He told reporters outside court: “All I can say basically is my heart goes out to the victim, Mr Burgin, and his family.<\/p>\n

“I’ve just served nearly a four-month sentence in jail and not seeing my newborn baby, the birth of my newborn baby, what can I say, you know, it’s been hard, but thank God nobody’s died.”<\/p>\n

What happened to Brendan Ingle?\"Brendan<\/p>\n

Hamed paid tribute to Ingle after the trainer’s death in 2018. (Empics via Getty)<\/p>\n

Hamed’s relationship with Ingle broke down in 1997, with the Irishman later saying the boxer became a “nightmare” to train. He said: “I sacked myself, let’s get that clear. I could have continued with Naz and made more money. I’m not a mercenary.”<\/p>\n

Speaking to the BBC<\/a> in 2009, Ingle said Hamed “never reached his potential”, claiming the boxer “could have been as good, if not better than Muhammad Ali”.<\/p>\n

He added: “What he could have done would have been just amazing… But money does strange things to people. If I was 21 and had \u00a32-3 million, I don’t know what would happen.”<\/p>\n

Ingle died in 2018, aged 77, from a brain haemorrhage. In his obituary, The Guardian<\/a> described him as “one of the most important men” in British boxing history, saying his “single greatest achievement” was shaping Hamed’s career.<\/p>\n

The sports star paid tribute to Ingle, saying he would be “sorely missed by all who have had the pleasure of his company over the years”.<\/p>\n

He added: “During my career, there were times we were inseparable, and I can honestly say that if it were not for Brendan Ingle, I would not have achieved all I did in the sport of boxing. I hope in the years to come, Brendan will be honoured, as I have, in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.”<\/p>\n

Giant will be released in UK cinemas on 9 January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British boxing icon Prince Naseem “Naz” Hamed is the latest sports star to receive the big-screen treatment. New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,2739,203629,115300,528,122411,18650,210994,85,29305],"class_list":{"0":"post-395144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-boxing-world","12":"tag-brendan-ingle","13":"tag-british-boxing","14":"tag-getty-images","15":"tag-nick-potts","16":"tag-prince-naseem","17":"tag-prince-naz","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-sylvester-stallone"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}