Allan “Forty” Rego, revered as Bermuda’s most respected boxing coach, died from cancer on Saturday. He was 86.

Rego worked with a who’s who of local boxing, including Troy Darrell, Roy Johnson, Quinn Paynter, Clarence Hill, Norman DeSilva, Anthony Fubler, Gary Hope and Teresa Perozzi.

For the past decade, he helped to guide Nikki Bascome through the amateurs to the paid ranks, as well as developing the island’s top amateur, Andre Lambe, from his Cross End Lane gym in Warwick.

Rego, whose two-fight professional career finished with a knockout win over James “Buster” Samuels at the Tennis Stadium in 1957, fell ill shortly after Bascome’s defeat by Portuguese Fábio Costa at the Fairmont Southampton in November.

It was Olympian Johnson, who led Rego to the Pembroke Youth Centre, a breeding ground of great Bermudian boxers, in the summer of 1968.

Darrell, a former middleweight title contender, said Rego had “a heart as big as the ocean” and played a pivotal role in shaping his career.

“Forty could really lift you. He gave you so much confidence that you didn’t fear anybody,” Darrell said.

“He made you feel like nobody could beat you and used to say things like, ‘They think they’ve met the best, but they haven’t seen the rest!’”