Boxing: Pierce Brosnan gives Prince Naseem Hamed the hug he never got from Brendan Engel

An imagined moment gave Prince Naseem Hamed a vision of what reality could have been like.

The reconciliation with Brendan Engel, which never happened, is a pivotal part of Giant, the biopic about the duo.

One unfortunate thing that the former world champion has learned to live with is that he never had the opportunity to personally make peace with his coach and mentor.

“I always wanted it to happen,” Hamed, now 51, told BBC Sport.

“But to see it unfold in front of me as if it could happen… I said to the director and producer, ‘I just hope that last scene is really real, because I wanted it to be.’”

“Because I’ve been with him for about 18 years.”

Giant, the new film starring Pierce Brosnan and Amir El Masry, tells the story of the relationship between trainer and fighter. The story depicts Hamed’s rise from a seven-year-old child growing up in Sheffield to a millionaire international star under Engel’s supervision.

The film, released in UK cinemas on January 9, looks at how Hamed became a world featherweight champion when he was 21, and later had a falling out with the Irish-born trainer.

Their relationship soured as Hamed and his family became upset with the coach agreeing to take a 25% deduction from his fight purses when they started turning into big numbers.

Then the 1998 book “The Paddy and The Prince,” written by Nick Pitt, completely soured the relationship. They split shortly after Hamed defeated Wayne McCullough in the same year. It was a bitter parting.

As the years passed and Hamed’s career ended, he tried “several times” to reconnect with Engel, but the legendary coach did not want to meet.

In 2018, Engel died at the age of 77, and Hamed never had the opportunity to make amends. He couldn’t help but pay a public tribute to the man who helped him get to the top of the world.

“He did not want to have this last type of meeting and have to clear the air with it,” Hamed said.

“If I told you there were no regrets and I didn’t care, I would be lying. Because I have a heart and I felt like I started with it when I was seven years old.

“He laid down the basics and taught me things from a very young age that I could never not include – I can’t say it was on my own and it was just a God-given talent.

“I have to remember it in a good way, not because I have to, but because I want to.”