An imagined moment gave Prince Naseem Hamed the vision of what reality could have been.
The reconciliation with Brendan Ingle which never occurred is a pivotal part of Giant, the biopic about the pair.
A regret the former world champion has learned to live with is that he never got the chance to make peace in person with his trainer and mentor.
“I always wanted that to happen,” Hamed, now 51, told BBC Sport.
“But to see it unfold in front of me like it could have happened… I actually said to the director and the producer: ‘I only wish that that last scene was really true, because I would have wanted that’.
“Because I was with him for like 18 years.”
Giant, the new film starring Pierce Brosnan and Amir El-Masry, retells the coach and fighter’s relationship. The story charts Hamed’s rise from a seven-year-old growing up in Sheffield to a multi-millionaire global superstar under Ingle’s guidance.
The movie, released in UK cinemas on 9 January, delves into how Hamed became a world featherweight champion by 21 and then the fallout with the Ireland-born coach later on.
Their relationship became strained as Hamed and his family grew irritated by the trainer’s agreed 25% cut of his fight purses as they started to become big numbers.
Then a 1998 book, The Paddy and The Prince, written by Nick Pitt, completely soured the relationship. They split not long after Hamed’s win over Wayne McCullough in the same year. It was a bitter parting.
As years passed and Hamed’s career finished, he tried “many times” to reconnect with Ingle but the legendary trainer did not want to meet.
In 2018, Ingle died aged 77 and Hamed never got the chance to make amends. He could only deliver a public tribute to the man who had helped him reach the top of the world.
“He didn’t want to have that final kind of meeting and to have to clear the air with it,” Hamed said.
“If I was to say to you that there’s no regret and I don’t care, I’d be lying. Because I’ve got a heart and I felt like I started at the age of seven with him.
“He laid down the fundamentals and he taught me stuff from a very young age that I can never just not include – I can’t say it was on my own and it was just a God-given talent.
“I have to mention him in a good way, not because I have to, because I want to.”
