{"id":399474,"date":"2026-01-08T09:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399474\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T09:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T09:54:11","slug":"trainer-brendan-ingles-familys-pride-over-prince-naseem-hamed-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/399474\/","title":{"rendered":"Trainer Brendan Ingle’s family’s pride over ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed film"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed’s turbulent relationship with late trainer Brendan Ingle takes centre stage in Giant<\/p>\n

The family of Brendan Ingle have shared their pride over the late boxing trainer being portrayed by a Hollywood icon in an upcoming film.<\/p>\n

‘Giant’ shares the story of boxer ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed’s rise to fame during the 1990s and his relationship with Ingle, played by James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan. <\/p>\n

The Dublin-born former boxer, who died aged 77 in 2018, guided four fighters to world titles – Hamed, Johnny Nelson, Junior Witter and Kell Brook.<\/p>\n

Daughter Tara Ingle said her father would have “loved” to have known he was played in a film “by a big star”.<\/p>\n

“I got quite emotional seeing the film poster on the bus in Sheffield, it’s a weird feeling,” the 53-year-old said.<\/p>\n

“I just wish he could see all this – he’d be amazed that someone had made a film about him.”<\/p>\n

Raised in a working-class family in Sheffield, Hamed established himself as one of the brightest young talents in boxing after being introduced to the sport by his father aged seven.<\/p>\n

He turned professional at 18 and was a European champion at 20, with world honours following a year later.<\/p>\n

Ingle’s relatives, boxers and former trainers from the Ingle Gym are expected to be in the audience at a special screening at The Light cinema in Sheffield on Thursday.<\/p>\n

A question and answer session will also be held with lead actor Amir El-Masry, who plays Hamed, and writer director Rowan Athale.<\/p>\n

The film’s executive producer is legendary Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone.<\/p>\n

Tara said: “[Brendan] loved Rocky, we always got dragged out to a Rocky film as kids.”<\/p>\n

\"CopyrightCopyright of True Brit Entertainment<\/p>\n

James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan plays Brendan Ingle in ‘Giant’<\/p>\n

The trainer coached a run of world-beating fighters from an early age from his gym in an old church hall in Wincobank in the east end of Sheffield. <\/p>\n

His sons, Dominic and John, took over the gym when Ingle stood down and trained former world champions Kell Brook and Billy Joe Saunders.<\/p>\n

Barnsley-born Athale admits he felt the “pressure” to get “the details right” about the Ingle story.<\/p>\n

“The first time I went to meet Dom Ingle, around 15 people suddenly emerged at the gym keen to tell their Brendan stories,” he said. <\/p>\n

“It was at that point I realised just how much he meant to so many people – I saw it in their eyes.”<\/p>\n

The writer director also recalls the “daunting” experience of a recent screening for the extended Ingle family at the Vue cinema in Meadowhall.<\/p>\n

“Dom Ingle is a tough Sheffield guy, he’s been training boxers his whole life,” he said.<\/p>\n

“To see how emotional he got and the whole family’s reaction was really moving.”<\/p>\n

\"TaraTara Ingle<\/p>\n

Tara Ingle, pictured with her father Brendan on her wedding day <\/p>\n

The film was inspired by two books<\/a> written by Edge Hill University psychology professor Geoff Beattie, who trained at the same gym as Naseem and charted his rise.<\/p>\n

Tara said she was pleased how the film captured the “generosity” of her father.<\/p>\n

“My dad’s biggest story is what happened when people weren’t looking,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We found this out when he died and my mum got hundreds of letters and people wrote about how he’d changed their life.”<\/p>\n

Giant is released in cinemas on Friday. <\/p>\n

Real story behind new Sheffield film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed’s turbulent relationship with late trainer Brendan Ingle takes centre stage in Giant The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-399474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399474","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=399474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}