Ryley BowmanBBC Scotland News
Paul GilfeatherFrank Gilfeather hung up his boxing gloves more than half a century ago but now, at the age of 79, he has become an unlikely star.
He has amassed millions of fans around the world with his motivational videos sharing his passion for the noble art.
The Dundee-born boxer is followed by legends such as current heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk and former champ Lennox Lewis as well as Scottish football legend Ally McCoist and A-list actor Channing Tatum.
His late-life boxing fame began three years ago when his son Paul made a video in which he said to Frank: “Show me how to throw an uppercut”.
Frank, looking fit and focused despite his years, tells him it can be “one of the most devastating punches in boxing”.
The white-haired veteran then demonstrates the technique with a series of perfectly-delivered powerful blows to a punchbag mounted on the gym wall.
The TikTok video now has 853,000 views, with the comments admiring his old school boxing skills and praising his dedication to remaining fit despite his age.
“They are thinking there’s some trick here, this guy is nearly 80, how can he do that?,” Frank says.
The secret is a lifelong love of the sport, which began early.
When he was four his dad started a club in the Lochee area of Dundee in an attempt to get young kids off the street and keep them out of trouble.
“We had no ring,” he says.
“There were some punch bags, which were ex-sailors’ kit bags stuffed with sawdust. It was very primitive, but we loved it.”
At the age of 10, Frank started boxing seriously and he went on to have 200 amateur fights, representing Scotland across Europe and fighting against greats such as Ken Buchanan.
“It taught you discipline,” Frank says.
“You’ve got to be turning up for training, you’ve got to be training hard, you’ve got to be regularly training.
“It teaches you respect for your fellow men and respect for your elders.”
But by 21, Frank felt like he had enough and was satisfied with what he’d accomplished.
Paul GilfeatherHe needed a career so he gave up boxing and took up a job as trainee journalist at the Arbroath Guide newspaper.
A long career in sports journalism followed, including working for ITV’s Grampian TV, where the closest he got to a fight was with Sir Alex Ferguson, the notoriously hot-headed manager for Aberdeen in the 1980s.
It was not until decades later, when he was in his late 50s, that Frank, by then a father-of-four, started working out again at his local boxing gym.
“I thought ‘I’ll go to the gym and keep with it’,” he says.
“I felt guilty that I wasn’t doing anything in terms of physical exercise.”
Frank spent the next 15 years consistently working out and staying fit.
“I worked out three times a week, full session, the same as everyone else. I loved it,” he says.
Then three years ago the uppercut video went viral and his hundreds of followers soon became tens of thousands.
“TikTok was like a wildfire,” he says. “Soon we were at 50,000 followers and then 70,000 and I’m thinking ‘this is crazy’.”
Paul GilfeatherAfter this, other videos started to take off, with Frank sharing more boxing techniques or just general fitness motivation.
This led to Frank and his son Paul expanding their reach to other platforms such as Youtube and Instagram under the handle ‘franksnobleart’.
One of his videos reached 4.5 million views and his account is now at 688,000 followers, including former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva and Terence Crawford, the undisputed world champion boxer in three different weight classes.
Frank’s sudden rise in fame has opened some unexpected doors for a retired journalist in his late 70s.
Paul GilfeatherIn July, he met current heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk while he was in London for his rematch against Daniel Dubois.
“He walks out, sees me standing there and he just stops everything and walks right over to me and gives me a big hug,” Frank says.
“I thought, ‘that’s the heavyweight champion of the world’.”
Frank was also flown to Riyadh earlier this year by Turki Al-Sheikh, a prominent figure in Saudi Arabian sports relations, to attend the high-profile rematch between Bivol and Beterbiev for the undisputed light heavyweight title.
He says he stayed in a hotel suite that was bigger than his flat back home in Aberdeen – something he had never experienced during his own boxing career.
In Saudi, Frank found himself rubbing shoulders with other boxing legends.
“You walk into the VIP room because you’re one of them now,” he says.
“You’ve got guys like Lennox Lewis, who’s a giant, coming over and saying, ‘I follow you’.”
Paul GilfeatherAs well as his social media videos, Frank now travels the world giving coaching seminars in places like Lanzarote, Paris and New York.
“It’s so overwhelming, I can’t believe it, especially at my age,” he says.
“I get inquiries from all over the world, can you come here? could you do a seminar? Yeah, go for it.”
Another new venture is a boxing glove business with his son Paul which is selling in 56 countries.
“We reinvented the bag mitt but Paul takes care of all that,” Frank says.
“Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the orders.”
Paul GilfeatherFrank believes in a very traditional old-school style of boxing where opponents have mutual respect for each other.
He rejects the modern spectacle of boxing hype and trash talk, instead he advocates for the noble art of self-defence.
“All that hype I absolutely hate it, just go and box,” he says.
Frank says the main message from his videos is the life values that boxing teaches people.
“It’s not about aggression, it’s the noble art of self defence” he says.
He says he wants people to be inspired to believe in themselves and it seems to be working.
“I have had heaps and heaps of comments and questions from people saying, I suffer from mental illness, I watch what you’re doing and it’s inspired me to get off the couch,” he says.
“I have had addicts come on and said, ‘I watch your videos. I absolutely love what you’re doing and I’m trying to follow in your footsteps’.”
“I want people to say to themselves, ‘if he can do it, then at least I can try.”
