Growing up above a corner shop in the Sheffield suburb of Wincobank, Naseem Hamed rose from humble beginnings to become a boxing icon and one of Britain’s most famous Muslim sporting stars.
The Prince, as he was known during his 1990s pomp, not only inspired a generation of fighters on his way to becoming world champion, but captured the attention of the world outside of the ring.
A new biopic following the highs and lows of his career, against the backdrop of his turbulent relationship with trainer Brendan Ingle, will premiere at the London Film Festival this weekend before its full release in January.
British Indian filmmaker Rowan Athale, who wrote and directed Giant, says Hamed proved anything is possible.
“He was someone I felt me and my brothers were represented by,” he says.
“Though Naz is Yemeni, not Indian, we were all treated the same.”
Athale, who was a teenager growing up in Barnsley during “Nazmania”, adds: “It felt like he was ours.”
Seeing his hero in the ring, on Top of the Pops and on the front of FHM magazine “meant the world” to Athale.
“There really aren’t that many people out there that represent our culture on screen, they aren’t on our radios and they are certainly not in our sports,” he says.
“It wasn’t like he was the next person, he was the only person. He meant a lot to a lot of people.”
Athale, now 44, fell in love with boxing after watching the Rocky films aged five. By 14, he knew he wanted to make movies himself.
Combining the two has been the culmination of a life’s work.
“I always had this notion I wanted to make a film about Naz,” says the director, whose previous credits include The Vault and Wasteland.
“The drama behind the superstar in the ring, that story was just as compelling as what happened in the ring.”