{"id":377964,"date":"2026-01-19T04:41:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T04:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/377964\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T04:41:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T04:41:25","slug":"the-story-of-hamed-ingle-feud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/377964\/","title":{"rendered":"the story of Hamed-Ingle feud"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everybody loves a Hollywood ending and Giant, a new film about the rise of Prince Naseem Hamed and the fraught relationship with his trainer, Brendan Ingle, does its best to contrive one. <\/p>\n

In one of the closing scenes an imagined reconciliation takes place between the former featherweight world champion and his embittered mentor after years of bad-mouthing and accusations of betrayal. The illusion is shattered shortly afterwards when the end credits confirm their feud remained unresolved when Ingle died in 2018, but the cinematic depiction of their relationship, aided by the star power of Pierce Brosnan, who plays the Sheffield-based Irish trainer, has reopened many of the old wounds that festered behind one of British boxing\u2019s greatest real-life dramas.<\/p>\n

Hamed, who has remained as elusive in retirement as he was during his brilliant, effervescent pomp, had no input into the film \u2014 although the producers did attempt to reach him. Instead, it was guided by Ingle\u2019s sons, John and Dominic, who grew up alongside Hamed in the Wincobank Gym. <\/p>\n

\"Amir<\/p>\n

Amir El-Masry as Hamed and Brosnan as Brendan Ingle. Hamed was not involved in the production of the movie but has decided to promote it upon its release<\/p>\n

SAM TALOR<\/p>\n

Upon first viewing, Hamed conceded it was a hard watch when confronted by the central narrative that his ego and the influence of his brothers meant he increasingly took Ingle\u2019s time and tutelage for granted before the pair split in 1998.<\/p>\n

Hamed was unbeaten in 31 fights and had announced himself as a star in America. Three and a half years later he was unofficially retired at only 28 after suffering his sole defeat against Marco Antonio Barrera in the interim. <\/p>\n

Hamed decided to promote the film nonetheless but the press junket steadily began to feature more parting shots. In an interview with the Guardian Hamed claimed that Brendan Ingle \u201cnever really trained\u201d him and instead credited the honing of his natural ability to John. <\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT000001430835\"<\/p>\n

Hamed\u2019s devasting punching power resulted in 31 knockout wins from 37 bouts in his career<\/p>\n

RICHARD PELHAM\/NEWS GROUP NEWSPAPERS LTD<\/p>\n

When Hamed claimed on talkSPORT that Ingle Sr\u2019s \u201ctrue intention was money\u201d and that he tried to \u201cpin him down from 11 years of age\u201d to give him 25 per cent of his future earnings, it proved the final straw. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen all this came out, I was angry. Why are you doing this?\u201d says Johnny Nelson, who is eight years Hamed\u2019s senior and became the WBO cruiserweight champion under Ingle. \u201cThe uncomfortable thing for me is that Brendan isn\u2019t here to defend himself. It\u2019s wrong. I thought it was slanderous. <\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t got an angle. He wasn\u2019t my dad. But I know Brendan was a good man who helped so many people and changed so many lives. Saying something like that rubs it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Giant"<\/p>\n

Nelson, who is portrayed in the film by Sanchez Brown, has been unhappy with Hamed\u2019s recent criticisms of his trainer<\/p>\n

KATE GREEN\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Nelson goes on to explain that 25 per cent was the industry standard fee \u2014 \u201che\u2019s made it sound gross, like he was grooming him\u201d \u2014 and likens Hamed\u2019s comments about John being his trainer to \u201cAlex Ferguson having four or five assistant coaches\u201d. But Nelson does accept that the film only \u201cmagnified one part of Naz, which grew. It didn\u2019t show the funny, loving side,\u201d which probably prompted \u201chis ego to get the better of him\u201d.<\/p>\n

In spite of all the recriminations since the film\u2019s premiere, what is unarguable is that the joyous early years birthed a legend like few others. Folklore \u2014 and the film \u2014 has it that Ingle spotted the \u201clittle Naz fella\u201d from the top deck of a bus as he fought off three bigger white boys at the start of the 1980s when the National Front was active in Yorkshire. Not long after he began training at the Wincobank Gym, Ingle would tell anyone within earshot that Hamed was destined to become a world champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my dad used to do that, we just thought, \u2018Bloody hell, it\u2019s the ravings of a madman\u2019, but they had a great relationship,\u201d Dominic says. \u201cIt was unbreakable up until the point [Hamed] turned professional and he started grabbing the spotlight and everybody jumped on the bandwagon.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was given the tools by Brendan and, don\u2019t forget, everybody in the gym was older than him, so when Naz was 11, Johnny was a pro. He had a lot of people to look up to and they kind of nurtured him as well. He absorbed everything and he was supremely confident.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/p>\n

The Ingle family watch on as Hamed faced McCullough in 1998. The fighter and trainer split less than two months later<\/p>\n

JOHN GICHIGI\/ALLSPORT<\/p>\n

Nelson most fondly remembers their antics outside of the ring before they challenged for titles. \u201cThe fun times were when we travelled away and we were on a hustle,\u201d he says. \u201cWe used to play a game where we\u2019d go to a show, nobody would have a ticket, and we\u2019d have a competition [to see] who could get closest to ringside. It was just childish games like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of [Hamed\u2019s promoter] Frank Warren\u2019s employees was a bit of a twat, so we\u2019d find out what room he was in and order food to his room. Someone on the outside wouldn\u2019t get it. <\/p>\n

\u201cBrendan encouraged us to use industrial language. He taught us how to deal with abuse so when someone called you a \u2018black bastard\u2019 or a \u2018P***\u2019, we smiled. It would\u2019ve looked like a dysfunctional family, but we weren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

As ever in life, and particularly in a sport that involves putting it on the line, the tensions grew in accordance with money and fame. Ingle was scarred by a fallout with a previous fighter, Herol Graham, and Hamed felt the trainer was compensating by taking too much credit, along with a large portion of his purses. <\/p>\n

\"Kell<\/p>\n

Former welterweight world champion Kell Brook trained at the Ingle gym with Brendan, left, and Dominic, right<\/p>\n

CARL RECINE\/REUTERS VIA ACTION IMAGES<\/p>\n

But Dominic does not blame Hamed for heeding the advice of his brothers. \u201cI can kind of understand the paranoia he had about people ripping him off,\u201d he says. \u201cEverybody wanted a piece of him and he probably thought, \u2018The people that are going to look after me are my family\u2019, but his brothers had no idea whatsoever about boxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson is less diplomatic about how the breakdown unfolded. \u201cIt was horrible. We were all friends, and Naz was being disrespectful to Brendan, and I was thinking, \u2018What the f***?\u2019 \u201d he says. \u201cThey split and Naz was saying shit about him in the press. People would avoid Naz because they didn\u2019t want to be [seen as] supporting that, and the press took the piss, because they knew it was a sore subject and Brendan would start ranting and raving. It got to a point where we had to make a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the film John and Dominic rejoice when an ill-prepared Hamed loses to Barrera, but Brendan reaped no such vindication. In the years afterwards Hamed attempted to bury the hatchet multiple times, but Ingle always rebuffed him. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a series of events that pushed him over the edge. I had to train Naz for the Wayne McCullough fight [Hamed\u2019s last under the Ingles] because he wasn\u2019t talking to Brendan. He came over and said, \u2018I\u2019m off Naz, that\u2019s me done, I\u2019m not training you. You\u2019ve ruined everything,\u2019\u201d Dominic says.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Hamed\u2019s] parting words were, \u2018You\u2019ll never have another world champion. I\u2019m a gift from God. It\u2019s not going to happen.\u2019 There was a flicker of doubt in my dad\u2019s eyes. You could see he was thinking maybe he\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT000001211969\"<\/p>\n

Known for his theatrical entrances, Hamed once entered the ring on a \u201cflying carpet\u201d<\/p>\n

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND<\/p>\n

In reality, boxing has few romantic endings. The best usually only retire after they are well beaten. Dedicated trainers are abruptly blamed and ditched. Since leaving an indelible mark on the public consciousness Hamed had enjoyed a quiet retirement in the Middle East \u2014 a shift perhaps exacerbated by the terrible car accident for which he received a 15-month prison sentence and was stripped of his MBE in 2006. But his children have followed him into the sport and even trained at the Wincobank Gym under Dominic. Unlike so many old icons, Hamed is financially secure and has his faculties intact.<\/p>\n

For the Ingles, a bitter divorce became a catalyst. \u201cBy the time we\u2019d finished, [Hamed] was one of five [world champions], so it proved my dad\u2019s methods worked. He wanted to be known as a great trainer. If it was just Naz, there could be an argument he just got lucky, but he produced world champions from scratch who weren\u2019t as talented. It proved his system. That\u2019s what mattered to him, not the money,\u201d Dominic says. <\/p>\n

It does not always read harmoniously, but, as Nelson puts it: \u201cTime is a great storyteller.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everybody loves a Hollywood ending and Giant, a new film about the rise of Prince Naseem Hamed and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-377964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}