#12: Forbidden Secrets To Staying Young At 78 With Frank Gilfeather

Episode Transcript
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Ricardo (00:00):
Imagine being 78 years old but still hitting the bag
like a pro.
Meet Frank Gilfeather.
Born into the world of boxingin Scotland, raised in the grit
of the Granite City.

Frank Gilfeather (00:10):
When I was a kid growing up, there were
virtually no processed foods, nopackaging.
There was never any packaging.
Everything was wrapped in apiece of brown paper.

Ricardo (00:21):
His commitment to training and discipline is as
relevant now as ever.

My dad used to say if you're going to do it,
do it properly.
I look around at the obesityproblem and the obese kids and I
feel like going up to parentsand say, please, you're killing
your child.
Please get a grip and sortyourself out and show a good
example to your child.

Ricardo (00:46):
And when asked how he does it, Frank's answer is
simple.

How can you be so quick with your hands and
your footworks, greg?
How can you do that at 78?
I wish I had the answer.
I don't go any other way.
That's the only way I know howto do it.
And if somebody said to me me,oh, I could just slow down about
it.

Ricardo (01:06):
Frank's journey is an example for all of us to stay
active regardless of age.

I'm lucky I could do what I can do at 78,
and if I could do it at 80 thenI'll strive to do it and keep
doing it To watch or listen tothe episode with Frank
Gilfeather, visityouthfulagingsecretscom.

Ricardo (01:25):
Click on podcast, choose your preferred platform
and find episode 12.
What's up everyone.
Welcome to Youthful AgingSecrets Podcast.
I'm your host, ricardo Vasquez.
Today's guest is Mr FrankGilfeather.
Frank is a living legend fromAberdeen, scotland, known not
only for his remarkable boxingcareer as a fighter and coach,

(01:48):
but for his dedication to healthand fitness.
At 78 years young, he wasraised in a boxing household and
Frank honed his skills from anearly age, going on to represent
his country in the ring andlater becoming a respected voice
in sports journalism andcommunity mentorship.
Frank's lifetime commitment tophysical activity and his

(02:11):
insights into the importance ofmovement, discipline and
resilience have kept him sharp,strong and vibrant well into his
senior years.
In our conversation, frankshares invaluable insights into
staying healthy and activethroughout life.
Here's a sneak peek of whatyou'll learn Frank's philosophy

(02:32):
on diet, exercise and avoidingprocessed foods.
Frank's refreshing approach tomanaging stress and building
resilience.
Old school boxing wisdom thatyou can apply to your own life.
How Frank stays in incredibleshape at 78, frank's minimalist
diet, sleep habits, trainingroutine, thoughts on supplements

(02:54):
and more.
I'm absolutely honored to haveshared a couple of hours with
Frank and I learned a lot.
I hope you enjoy this episodeas much as I did.
Before we dive into today'sepisode, I want to quickly share
something with you, which is myfree 5 Health Hacks newsletter.
If you're someone who wants tolive as healthy as possible for
as long as possible, but don'talways have the time to listen

(03:15):
to every podcast episode or keepup with the latest health and
longevity research, then thisnewsletter is for you.
Each week, I send out a quick,actionable newsletter featuring
an inspiring quote, a summary ofthe latest podcast episode, a
breakdown of a health topicbacked by the latest research, a
few of my favorite discoveriesand recommendations for that

(03:35):
week and a question to get youthinking deeper.
It's designed to be read in thetime it takes you to enjoy your
morning coffee.
If you're interested, pleasehead over to
youthfulagingsecretscom.
Forward slash.
Subscribe to join for free.
Now let's get into this episodeIntroducing Mr Frank Gilfeather

(03:55):
.
All right, welcome Frank.
How are you?

I'm very well, ricardo.
It's great to talk to you.
We are on the other side of theworld, from across the Atlantic
and Toronto.
It's great to talk to you.
Are we at the other side of theworld, from across the Atlantic
and Toronto.

Ricardo (04:09):
That's right.
So from Toronto to Scotland.

Scotland.
Yeah, To the northeast ofScotland, to Aberdeen, which is
called the Granite City, becausevirtually all the buildings are
made from granite.

Ricardo (04:24):
Wow, that's awesome.
You know it's funny.
I used to have a a principalout in.
Is that what you guys call themfor?
School the principal?
Yeah, as well, head headteacher, that's right.
Yeah, he was from scotland ohand he had come straight from
scotland, like he, he had thehard, the thick accent and
everything and I was, I was,I'll be honest, I was scared of
him.

(04:44):
I was a little kid and he usedto yell at me and this one boy
because we were, we werehonestly, we deserved it, we
were little little assholes like, but anyways I I remember he
used to make us laugh too.
Um, so, so frank I I want to.
I want to first of all thankyou for for coming here and, um,
taking the time.
I know we had some difficultiesearlier but we made it happen,

(05:06):
so I'm really happy about that.
And I just wanted to ask youfirst if you don't mind kind of
sharing your backstory,specifically how you got into
boxing and all that jazz withgrowing up and related to that.
If you don't mind, just kind ofwant to understand your
backstory.

Yeah, well, the boxing thing is because, uh,
I come from a family of boxers.
Uh, my dad, who wasn't really aboxer because he had a he had
an injury playing football orsoccer, as you call it, um, and
he um from the age of 19, um, hehad this injury, which was

(05:45):
never rectified 100%, because heended up with one leg slightly
shorter than the other.
The reason for that was becausewhen he got that injury, there
were no antibiotics, there wasno penicillin, so he spent a

(06:05):
year in a cast down his leg andhe struggled after that, but he
overcame it.
He never.
He ran a boxing club.
Then he ran another one whenthat one ended, and so, over
decades, he ran several boxingclubs.
And so, over decades, he ranseveral boxing clubs.

(06:26):
And so, and I had two olderbrothers One is 11 years older
and another one was nine yearsolder and they went to the
boxing club that my dad ran.
And so, when I was about fouryears of age, I would go along
too, just to be part of it, andso, soaking up all this kind of

(06:46):
atmosphere, age, I would goalong too, just to be part of it
, and so, soaking up all thiskind of atmosphere, the
sweatiness and the smells andyou know the sounds of a boxing
club.
It kind of got ingrained intome and so that's how it all
started.
My two brothers boxed.
They were champions.
I kept going and going andgoing and won youth

(07:12):
championships and senior titles,boxed for my country and so on.
But the beginnings came when Iwas about four and so this was
about 1949, 1950.
And I just started going alongto the boxing club.

(07:33):
I guess it was ingrained in meso that was in my DNA and I just
took to it and I loved it.

Ricardo (07:44):
So right from the beginning.
So it sounds like like you saidit's in your blood.
Yeah, you were born to do itregardless.

Well, when I think about it now, it just
seemed a natural thing for me todo.
I didn't feel awkward or weirdin a sport that didn't suit me.
It just suited me.
And the principal reason forthat is my dad, who couldn't

(08:19):
call himself a coach, but he wasa teacher, and we would just
sit and chat often, and evenafter I'd boxed in different
tournaments and so on, we wouldanalyze what went right, what
went wrong, in a kind ofmeasured and civilized way and
he would point out the reasonswhy do we do this, why do we do

(08:42):
that punch, why do we deliverthat punch or how do we avoid
punches?
That was the main thing, ofcourse, the defense.
And so I kind of learnedlistening to him and he would
talk about the old fighters andthe people he'd seen and all
that and it became just part ofus and all the people who used

(09:06):
to come to my house were allconnected with boxing.
So it was a boxing household.
You know, the talk was aboutnot so much about the big fights
or anything like that, it wasabout what's happening with this
amateur boxing club or that one, or where are we boxing next
week and have we got boys onthat tournament next week or
where are we traveling to allthat stuff?

(09:28):
So I was growing up listeningto all of that uh between my dad
and other people, uh withinadditive boxing, and and so it's
.
You know, I just became part ofit, you know right, yeah, so
what's what's interesting isokay.

Ricardo (09:45):
So I I think we talked about this off camera but how I
found you was I.
I have a different channel andand I follow pretty much.
If you look at my channel, it'salmost all combat, and then
there's some odd stuff that I'minterested in, like just weird
stuff.
But but, uh, I I follow a lotof boxers or boxing coaches and
then wrestling, and I just lovethe art of combat and I've

(10:09):
always been into that same, likeyou.
I was born into that.
And so I came across you and Iwas really impressed because you
were hitting the bag.
And and then you know, let'sstart from the beginning.
You're, you're 78, right, yes,so forget about the age.
Just just the way you werehitting the bag in and of itself

(10:30):
was impressive.
But then I found out you're 70.
I was like what the hell?
Like I'm turning 40 in a weekand I don't know if I can hit
the bag like you hit the bag.
So I'm like it's kind of thatreally impressed me.
And so back, so I'm like it'skind of that really impressed me

(10:51):
.
And so then I I was like Igotta follow you on my other
channel, which is this one, andwhile this, this particular
podcast, is all about youthfulaging, in other words, you know,
aging gracefully, health,longevity, all that kind of
stuff, I thought it was still agreat fit and I I love boxing to
begin with, but with that said,what role do you think boxing
played as far as your health andand fitness is concerned?

well, it was extremely important, and the
reason is because it wasdifferent.
Once we're back, we're talkingabout a different age now.
Uh, when I was a kid growing up, there were virtually no
processed foods.
There were no fizzy drinks Well, there were, but nothing on the

(11:30):
scale that we have today andnothing of the variety that we
see today and no microwaves.
So therefore, no easy-to-eatfood, you know, and no packaged
food, no packaging.
There was never any packaging.
Everything was wrapped in apiece of brown paper and so you
didn't have that obstacle, andit is an obstacle.

(11:53):
And I see young kids today whoare clearly overweight, and
certainly in the UK there is amajor obesity problem.
I think the figure is somethinglike 50% of the population are
overweight to some degree.
And so you know, when you goand see these kids and they're

(12:15):
walking around the supermarketwith their parents and they're
picking up all the stuff that'ssalty and sugary, and potato
crisps, chips I think you callthem and all that kind of stuff,
chocolate bars and you couldbang, I could see these kids

(12:35):
overweight and they couldn't beon their own.
But I could bet all the moneyin the world that if I went
round to the next aisle andfollowed them round to meet
their mum or their dad, theywould be exactly the same.
So I think, while nobody wedidn't have to be told don't eat

(12:57):
this, don't eat that, you knowwhy it wasn't available, right?
So what I'm trying to say isthat we now face obstacles as a
race.
We face obstacles in food and,of course, the easier the

(13:19):
manufacturers make it, thetastier they make it, the more
attractive they make it, themore we buy into it.
So I would I don't know, maybegetting off the kind of
questioning here, but we neverhad that in those days.
So I trained from an early age.
I trained nonstop and as I grewolder I trained more non-stop.

(13:44):
As I grew older I trained more.
By the age of 21, I was sick ofboxing and I gave it up.
I fought a couple of hundredfights.
I'd boxed 17 times for mycountry.
I'd boxed all over the UK andEurope and Ireland.
It gave me a great insight intoother countries, other ways of

(14:04):
life, other people, and for methat was the bonus.
You know that I won titles andcontests and so on was important
?
Obviously it was, but boxinggave me so much more and it

(14:24):
actually opened doors for meBecause in those days amateur
boxing in the UK was a big deal.
So in the 60s, for example, theBBC had a contract with both the
governing bodies in Scotlandand England to cover live all

(14:45):
their internationals at home.
So one week it would be Englandagainst the USA and next week
it would be Scotland againstSwitzerland and so on, and so
there was a big audience andmany of us at the time became
household names.
So football was the big sport,but coming up a close second was

(15:10):
boxing and amateur boxing aswell.
In fact the major newspapers inScotland all had boxing
correspondents.
So when we went abroad to boxin Denmark, bulgaria, italy,
wherever they came with us, andDenmark, bulgaria, italy,
wherever they came with us thatwas the importance of it.
So it made many of us kind ofwell-known and that was good.

(15:34):
The problem with that is thatsome of the younger guys same
age as me would get kind ofcarried away with that.
So that's what you've got tokeep.
You've got to keep your feet onthe ground.
I was always told that by mydad.
You know I'm really weight ofthat.
So that's what you've got tokeep.
You've got to keep your feet onthe ground.
I was always told that by mydad.
You know I'm really proud ofyou.
You've done so well.

Ricardo (15:55):
But remember, don't get carried away.
And was your father like you inyour age?
Was he still coaching, stillvery active in that as well?

No, I wouldn't say so.
I mean he ran boxing clubs foryou.
He gave his heart and soul toamateur boxing right and
therefore he gave himself to.
If you like, you could call himalmost like a social worker,
because he opened up his club,he persuaded young boys to come

(16:25):
from the community to this focalpoint which was the boxing club
and therefore he kept them outof trouble.
He kept them away from crime,petty crime, kept the police at
distance and gave these youngguys something to believe in,
something to make themselves,proud of themselves, and that

(16:48):
was important.
So I think you were sweet to meand to my dad.
Now my dad was six weeks offhis 99th birthday when he died.
But he was a good living man.
He never smoked, he never drank, never gambled.
He lived a good living man.
He never smoked, he never drank, never gambled.
He, he lived a good life and hegained so much back to whatever

(17:10):
community his boxing clubhappened to be in at any given
year.
You know we had to move aroundfor various reasons, whether the
lease on the gym might've beenup and where you know the owner
of gym wanted the premises.
So you would, you would start anew boxing club and he did that
all the time.
Many people would just say, ohwell, okay, fine, we'll forget
it.
But of course, by the time Iwas 16, I'd run out of opponents

(17:37):
in my age group in Scotland.
So my club at the time myfather had given up by then.
My club at the time, my fatherhad given up by then.
My club at the time had said tothe governing body would you
allow him to box seniors?
Now, seniors in those daysmeant you were 17 years and
older.

(17:57):
Nowadays it's 19.
But you could be 17, you couldbe 30, you could be 35.
You are a senior.
And that was it.
So they said to me yeah, youcan box seniors now.
And so I started, at the age of16, boxing seniors and I started

(18:18):
to beat the hell.
These were experienced guys andI never thought about anything
at that time and I can't.
The thing, the time and I can't.
The thing is this I was aboxing man and I was a boy,
right.
So I'm boxing 24, 26-year-old,27-year-old, and you know it was
tough.

(18:39):
But what was kind of drummedinto me was the technique, the
skill of boxing.
Don't take punchesunnecessarily.
Sometimes you have to have areal bash, you have to have a go
, things are tight, butgenerally speaking, it's all
done with the science, it's alldone with the brain, and that's

(19:03):
what was instilled in methroughout my career and, of
course.
So I had all these contests,all the travel, all the
sometimes difficult fights, andat the age of 21, I thought,
well, I think enough's enough,and I would concentrate on my
job as a trainee reporter,newspaper reporter, and that was

(19:27):
great fun, and so that was likea new beginning for me and for
that.
And so I went into televisionand radio, and now I've written
a couple of books and a play,and so I kind of keep
reinventing myself.
So this bit on social media isall about that.

(19:47):
Not only am I reinventingmyself, I'm reinvigorated by
this, and now that I've got intoit, one of the things that
began to really annoy me waslooking at social media.
Boxing coaches, charlatans, inmy view, was looking at social
media boxing coaches Very bad.
Charlatans, in my view, and Iwould think, wow, these people

(20:10):
are being listened to andthey're being watched and
they're delivering absoluterubbish and you know it's bad,
and I don't like the fact thatyoung people maybe want to be
boxers are listening to this andthey're getting all the wrong
information.
So that's kind of that's kindof spurred me on to keep going

(20:33):
in this journey.
I love it.

Ricardo (20:36):
I have a.
I have a quite brought up aquestion.
There's a lot of these guys nowon Instagram and things like
that, where they line up theirstudents, yeah, and they just
punch them, oh my god, and andand they're hitting them in the
head like and and.
Some of these are like prettyhard shots.

(20:56):
You know, and personally I've.
I feel like I've been blessedand I'm lucky I was never
exposed to that.
I grew up with the samementality that you you're
talking about, which was likethe whole objective is to number
one don't get hit.
Yeah, and hit, but like don't.
Number one is like do not gethit if we're, if we're talking

(21:18):
about wrestling, or do not gettaken down or pinned.
You know, know, nowadays itseems like, oh, we're training
them to get hits.
Like what are you talking about?
You can't just listen.
I'm much younger, so you knowyou've forgotten more than I
could ever know.
But do you agree that this isstupid?
Yeah, like it doesn't make anysense.

It doesn't, of course, right.
So think about things today.
Of course, right.
So think about things today.
We see men who have comethrough boxing careers or rugby

(22:02):
or you know NFL and you callthat stuff, and we see them
today and what they end upgetting.
Now, not all of the time, it'sdifficult to generalize, but
what many of them end up gettingis dementia and Alzheimer's.
Now, when I was a young boygrowing up, I'd never heard of

(22:23):
these words.
Nobody had.
They hadn't been invented.
We saw the old guys who used tocome to the gym and coach and
help and just watch the sparringand so on, and I would hear the
slurred speech.
I would see the way they walkedsometimes and we just called
them punchy.
Way they walked sometimes andwe just called them punchy.

(22:45):
So these were the guys who cameup the hard way in the 20s, 30s
and 40s, boxing in the boxingbooths.
Have you heard of the boxingbooths?
The boxing booths were thefairground boxers, right.
So the fairground would come,the fair would come to your town

(23:07):
for a week and a couple ofweeks and part of it would be a
marquee and outside there'd be akind of a walkway where there'd
be five or six or seven boxersand a guy in the middle going
come on, come up and challengeany of these guys and you pay
money to challenge them.
If you beat them you will get Xnumber of pounds or shillings

(23:31):
in those days.
Because we're talking aboutthis?
Because these booth fighterswere doing that for money,
because they were poor andunderprivileged.
But from the booths came worldchampions.
Benny Lynch, the great BennyLynch, the flyweight champion of
the world, started his careerin the boxing booth, sleeping

(23:55):
with the horses and thetraveling figures and taking on
all covers, all sizes, allweights.
And he was a flyweight, he wasan eight stone, and so he came
through that, but so too didmany, many others.
Now, when I was growing up,there were old coaches used to
go around.
There was a lovely old mancalled Freddie Tennant, who I go

(24:18):
now.
He must have lost count of thenumber of fights that he had in
the fairgrounds and also laterin the halls, in the boxing
halls, and Freddie would tell methat he would walk.
He would think nothing ofwalking 15 or 20 miles to join
the boxing booth so that hecould get extra money.

(24:40):
And so that's how you know.
Boxing came from the streets.
It came from people with poorbackgrounds.
It's not so much like that now.
Many of the amateur clubs arebased in underprivileged areas
within their own towns, butthat's where it came from.
So these guys who now today runboxing clubs, open them up

(25:05):
every night for the kids to joinand come in and keep fit and
box and learn how to box.
These kids, these boys, thesemen are the heroes and they
should be celebrated because ofthat.
They're the social workers inour community.
They're helping the police keepcrime off the streets and these

(25:25):
are the guys who should belauded and praised for what they
do.
They're helping the police keepcrime off the streets and these
are the guys who should belauded and praised for what they
do.
So you know, boxing plays amajor part still.
I'm surprised to say this, I'msurprised to hear myself saying
this.
It still plays a major partwithin our communities, when, in
fact, 30 years ago, I thoughtboxing was finished because of

(25:51):
the medical aspects of it.
So if people are starting toget dementia and it's partly
because they boxed or they hadthe ball playing soccer, which
is what's happening today, all Iwould say is well, I saw that
growing up because we didn'thave the name dementia at all

(26:12):
times, but it's a difficult,tough, hard sport and it takes a
great deal of heroism andcourage to step into that ring
and face somebody at the otherside who's trying to hurt you
right?

Ricardo (26:30):
yeah, absolutely, and so it really gets me upset when
I see videos like that and youknow I can.
I can appreciate theentertainment value or whatever,
but aside from that, it's liketo me it's these sadistic
coaches who I I don't think.
I find it hard to believe thatthey don't know better, because

(26:50):
the information's out there andI don't see them getting hit and
I think they're just abusingthese kids and it's like man.

Yeah you're talking about.
I think I know the ones you'retalking about and I think I'm
right in saying that whereverthey are, they're all the Indian
subcontinent.
The ones I've seen are, andsome guys have kind of stood
there with their hands up in theair and the coach will not tell
, or either face or body, andit's excruciating.

(27:20):
What I cannot understand is whyanybody would allow themselves
to be subjected to that.

Ricardo (27:29):
Well, sometimes these guys hang upside down and get
kicked in the head.
I'm like what the hell am Iwatching?
And these guys are supposedlyit's supposed to be preparing
them to take a shot.
It's like that's actually doingthe opposite.
It's making it so because youknow anybody that's far who has
been around that the more oftenyou take hits, the less you can

(27:51):
take like, the more you getknocked out, your brain shuts
off much quicker.
So of course it doesn't makeany sense.
It's like you're, you're andyou know.
I don't want to see these kidsin their later in life.
Hopefully, hopefully, they'reokay.
Some people, for some reason,can get all life hopefully
they're okay.
Some people, for some reason,can get all the punishment and
they're fine.
And some people get concussedonce or twice and they're never
the same again.

We were in Ireland once in County Notting
Hill way up on the west coast,and there was a guy in part of
our team it wasn't an officialScotland team, it was just a
little select from our district.
We went over there to box.
We boxed four times in twoweeks it was basically a holiday

(28:34):
and one of the guys in oursetup who later became my coach
and and one of my closestfriends, dearest friends, he's
now there.
He's named Jim Monroe.
So he boxed that night and hegot knocked out.
They carried him from the ring.

(28:56):
There was a doctor inattendance.
They carried him from the ringinto this communal changing room
where all the boxers were, butit was part of a church hall or
something and there was asnooker table in one side of the
room.
So the doctor said just laythem on the snooker table,

(29:20):
they'll be fine.
So this is how primitive we'retalking about around 1960.
So they put Jim on the snookertable, they'll be fine.
So this is how primitive we'retalking about around about 1960.
So they put Jim on the snookertable and about an hour later he
jumped up and he said when am Ion?
And we said you've been on.
And he said when are you on?

(29:40):
He said, well, you were on, youwere knocked out, and he
couldn't believe it.
He couldn't take that in, he'dalready been in the ring and
been knocked out.
Now, I have never experiencedbeing knocked out, and bizarrely
and kind of weirdly, I've oftenthought I wonder what it would

(30:03):
be.
I wonder if I could experiencethat, just to know what it's
like.
Of course it's nuts, I wouldn'twant to, but I often wonder
what it would be like.
But you're right.
So when I look at the topprofessionals, even the best
ones, the number of punches theytake to the head is frightening
it really is frightening.

(30:25):
And I cannot imagine for thelife of me that when they retire
, in 10, 15 years after theyretire, 20 years after they
retire, of course they're boundto be affected, of course their
mind is bound to kind of slow upand their speech perhaps
becomes slurred.
And from that point of view itwould be very difficult to

(30:50):
defend boxing against anorganization like the British
Medical Council or somethinglike that, the British Medical
Association, because you knowthey have the evidence.
My big surprise now is thatdespite them having a strong
lobby politically in the last 20, 30, 40 years trying to get

(31:15):
boxing banned, they nevermanaged it.
People are always comingforward, but at an amateur level
of course it's much more safe.
There is no accent on thefinancial aspects of boxing and
what it can make for a promoteror a TV pay-per-view station.

(31:35):
That's a different kettle offish In the amateur game.
It's pure, it's more pure.

Ricardo (31:44):
Right, yeah, I mean, I personally believe that boxing
and all combat sports do moregood than harm and I don't
believe you should be able totell people what they can and
can't do if they know the risksand they're getting involved.
I just think that the awarenessthat's coming out more and more
and more coaches are morecareful now.
You know, I've seen, I've goneto gyms where I could see the

(32:08):
changes in the way they spar andthe drills and and almost much
more preparation time withdefense, because they're
respecting the science Right.
So I think it's headed in agood direction.
But there are some countrieswhere maybe they just don't have
the information or they're justnot there yet, and it's to me
it's sad to watch um, but I wantto.

(32:29):
I want to switch gears a littlebit and I want to get into a
mindset.
You know, and you know like you, you seem like you're a very
healthy man and you take care ofyourself.
What's your mindset aroundhealth and longevity and you
know, just keeping yourselfhealthy, and where did you learn

(32:51):
it?

I didn't learn it.
Really I'm lucky, I'm reallylucky.
I think I'm almost a fluke ofnature.
My dad Marnaccio he was almost90 when he died, just a few
weeks from his 99th birthdayNever smoked, never drank, he

(33:13):
never gambled.
He was basically a good man,right, you know, a lot of
integrity.
He had humility and all thatkind of characteristics that you
would like to see within aperson, certainly within a
friend and somebody that youcould go to.
I mean, I remember my house usedto be full of people who had

(33:35):
problems and they would come tomy dad and he was almost like a
counsellor and he would sit themdown and they either had drink
problems or gambling issues orwhatever, and he would sit them
down and we'd have to leave theroom and he would talk to them
and just kind of get themthrough things.

(33:59):
And so there was a kind ofcoterie of people who did that
on almost an ongoing basis andyou know, I always thought
that's incredible.
You know he's not prepared toturn his back on these people
and say, look, you know, don'tbother me, I'm too busy.
He wasn't prepared to do that.
He was always prepared to say,look, don't bother me, I'm too

(34:20):
busy.
He wasn't prepared to do that.
He was always prepared to say,yeah, come and sit down, let's
have a chat, have a cup of tea.
And so he was my role model.
He was my hero, and I never setout to be like him.
I never set out to be like him.

(34:41):
I never set out to be this kindof fitness guru who is full of
good health.
I can't pretend that I'm likethat.
I'm not.
I'm just a lucky guy who isable to do it.
People have said to me how canyou punch so strongly?
How can you be so quick withyour hands and your foot works

(35:02):
great, how can you do that at 7to 8?
I wish I had my answer.
I don't know any other way.
That's the only way I know howto do it.
And if somebody said to me, oh,just slow down a bit, I can't,
you know, if I'm going to do it,let's do it properly.
And maybe that's kind ofthrowback to what my dad used to
say If you're going to do it,do it properly.

(35:23):
If not, boxing is too dangerousnot to do it properly.
So get out.
So, as far as the kind ofhealthy, I'm lucky I have a wife
, sharon, who cooks me freshfood every single day.
Now what I've found is we'vekind of morphed into this in the

(35:46):
last I don't know couple ofyears, no more than a year.
I would say to her you knowwhat?
Where was the last time we hadred meat?
I can't remember the last timeI had red meat, yeah, okay, well
, I'm not a big fan of red meatanyway.
But sometimes I used to think,oh, I'd love a steak.
Then when you had a steak,you'd think, well, that wasn't

(36:09):
everything it was cracked up tobe.
So I eat chicken.
But the big thing is I now findmyself kind of edging more and
more, just by default, more thananything else, because my wife
cooks this stuff and it'sbrilliant Vegetarianism.
So I find that I have a mealand I'll say that was brilliant,

(36:33):
that was really delicious, youknow, but there was no prawns in
it, there was no chicken, therewas no beef but no pork, it was
just vegetables, but it tastedfantastic.
So I've now come to learn,ricardo, that for a dish to be
delicious, does it have to be,does it have to contain meat,

(36:57):
does it have to be?
Does it have to contain meat?
Now I was saying that I'mprobably now 80, 85% vegetarian.
But it's just happened byevolution.
It's not happened because we'vedesigned it that way and
thought, right, we're not goingto be vegetarians.
It's just happened that way.

(37:17):
And I think more and more mywife will put down food and
realize there is no meat inthere and she'll know that I'm
loving it.
So I'm lucky, I've got it in myDNA.
My dad was always a fit guy buthe never, he never trained

(37:37):
because he had this kind ofinjury that when he was 19 and
what, and before there werethere was uh, antibiotics and
all that and.
But he was never fat, he wasnever overweight, he was well
built in a barrel chest and he,he, uh, he.
He was just a good looking guyand I'm lucky that I inherited

(38:00):
those genes from him.
So I'm not standing up andsaying look at me, how great am
I at 78?
I'm not.
And what I'm saying is I'mlucky, I could do what I could
do at 78.
And if I could do it at 80,then I'll strive to do it when
I'm 85 and keep doing it.
If I slow down, it doesn'tmatter.

(38:20):
I have no injuries, I have nojoint problems, and so if I'm
that way inclined, then I'llkeep doing it.

Ricardo (38:31):
That's awesome.
And so on the topic of diet,for example, could you walk me
through, like a typical day ofwhat you eat and when, like when
you start eating, what you eat,what you drink, if you don't
mind, okay, sure.

For a start, my wife's got a big deal about
water, how much water we shoulddrink.
Having a glass of water wouldbe the last thing that enters my
mind.
You know why so, and I think,okay, next thing then drink that
.
But what she does now well,what she mainly does the water

(39:14):
will come in part of dilutingjuice or some kind of thing that
makes it taste better for me.
I think water's boring, so Inever and even in the gym I see
all the kids drinking water.
You'll have a break, and Icoach them.
I said you know we'll have abreak now and they'll go to
their water bottle.

(39:34):
I don't have a water bottle.

Ricardo (39:38):
Like me right here.

And they're all light.
Everybody's like that now and Ithink that's wonderful.
Because of what I know aboutthe consumption of water and how
necessary it is, that'swonderful.
I can't get into it.
I drink diluting juice and thatkind of stuff.
That's when I get my water.
So let me tell you about my dayin terms of food.
Every morning is the same andthat kind of stuff.

(40:01):
That's when I get my water.
So let me tell you about my dayin terms of food.
Every morning is the same.
I have toast with and it's brownseeded bread, and it took my
wife years and years and yearsto get me onto that brown seeded
bread.
For me it was cardboard but I'mon it now.
Now I have been on it forseveral years.

(40:22):
And on the bread is I haveapricot jam.
I love apricot jam, right, anda cup of tea.
And then mid-morning I will havea cup of coffee which we made
in our filtered coffee machine,one cup.
And then after that I'llprobably have around about

(40:47):
lunchtime, early afternoon, afruit salad with yogurt.
So it'll be grapes, banana,tangerine, anything like that,
and a couple of dollops ofyogurt.
And then we have our main meal,which is very often it's pasta,
we'll have some chicken,sometimes rice, vegetarian

(41:12):
dishes baked in the oven, thatkind of stuff.
We'll have that no later, atthe very latest 6 o'clock, but
usually by 5 o'clock, and then Ihave nothing to eat till
breakfast time the next day.
That's made a big difference tome.
I think that that whole 16hours, or whatever it is,

(41:35):
dieting throughout the night,fasting, has improved my health
and my mobility.
Perhaps Would I be able to dowhat I do if I wasn't on that
diet, probably, but this is whatI'm doing now in terms of
eating has enhanced what I'mable to do, I feel, and so it's

(41:59):
made a huge difference.
So maybe that's a secret.
Certainly, the fasting between,you know, five o'clock or six
o'clock till eight o'clock or8.30 the next morning, is
fantastic, and I would, you know, I would edge people in that
direction, certainly people of acertain age who think they're

(42:22):
couch bound and they're notmoving and not walking and
they're not going to the gym.
At least, please cut and this isthe other thing cut out the
rubbish, cut out the fizzydrinks, cut out the salted
snacks, all that stuff,chocolate bars, all that stuff

(42:43):
that doesn't exist in my dietbecause, apart from now and
again, if I'm in the supermarketand I see, well, let's have a
bar of chocolate.
But you know, I can't rememberthe last time I had chocolate,
maybe six weeks ago, somethinglike that I very occasionally
have a bit with a cup of coffeein the evening, so that with

(43:03):
that evening meal my cup ofcoffee would be there.
And I'm not trying, you know.
So I'm not saying.
I'm saying, francis, what I'msaying is I will happily have
with my evening meal a glass ofred wine.
So, if you like, it's aMediterranean diet I'm trying to

(43:25):
follow, without actually goingdown that road, but I know when
I look at it, well, this is aMediterranean diet and it's
working for me.
So that's how I do it.

Ricardo (43:38):
That's really cool.
Just curious, when's yourbirthday?
My birthday December 30.
Oh, it just passed.
Yes, happy belated.
I'll remember that December30th I was going to say did you
have cake?

No, I don't want to isolate.
Do you know what?
There's a thing about mybirthday?
Because it falls betweenChristmas and New Year and
nobody ever remembered mybirthday.
It was going so soon when Iremember vividly the day I was
21,.
And you know when I rememberedwhen I was 21?

(44:18):
I remember about lunchtime, 1o'clock in the afternoon, and I
don't know what made me.
Something clicked in my mind.
I thought, well, I know, it'smy birthday today, I'm 21.
Oh, my God.
And then I thought, and then,30 seconds later, I right, let's
move on.
So for me and this annoys mywife and she'll say well, we've

(44:42):
got to get birthday presents forPaul and for Stephen or Lucy or
Catherine or children.
I go, okay, fine, she goes.
Well, where's your enthusiasm?
And I'm well, okay, fine, it'sa birthday.
But it was no big deal for megrowing up, and I think, partly
because of the era that I grewup in, nobody had donated black

(45:04):
presents, and then partlybecause my birthday fell between
Christmas and New Year PaulMonet, of course which was the
day after my birthday wheneverybody celebrated Moorure
into the new year.
So nobody ever remembered.
Sometimes they would thinkabout it a couple of days later

(45:25):
and say, oh, it was yourbirthday a couple of days ago.

Ricardo (45:31):
That's funny.
So, aside from your diet itseems like more
Mediterranean-style diet and theintermittent fasting do you
take any supplements or anymedication?
Supplements, anything like that, zero, nothing.

I've got a big deal about that.
You know a big thing about that.
My dad never took a pill in hislife.
Headaches if he had a headache,we never knew about it.
If he was in any way ill, sickin any way, no matter how minor,
he never took anything.

(46:06):
And nor did he tell us what ifhe was feeling bad or unwell or
a headache or whatever.
And so I followed that route,because I never take pills or
supplements.
Never take pills or supplements.
And you know one of the things,ricardo, while I'm on that
subject, I've had approachesfrom companies who manufacture

(46:32):
supplements and protein pillsand all that stuff that they do
and vitamin pills and all that,saying to me we can send you
this and we can send you that,you know, looking for a mention
on my channels and I would justsay don't bother, because I
would just put them in the bin.
They mean nothing to me.
Now I'm not discounting thatand I hate the thought.

(46:55):
You know I wouldn't likeeverybody to think saying, oh,
what does he know better?
I know nothing about it.
I'm not trying to be some kindof expert.
These supplements, thesevitamin pills and all these
things might help people.
I'm sure they do, but for meI'm not interested and I've
never taken them.

Ricardo (47:15):
No, Interesting as far as like prevention or
maintenance and things like that.
Do you believe in regularcheckups or just checking your
blood, your levels, to see am Igood on this vitamin or that, or
do you just go by how you feelor how do you approach?

that that's exactly what I do.
I never meet the GP forgoodness knows how long I mean.
Last time I met the GP severalyears ago, she said you've got
the thinnest file in ourpractice.
She said what?
It was, something that was anear problem or something I had,

(48:01):
and so I've never.
You know, I listen, I'm lucky.
I'm not.
You know, I'm lucky.
Imagine a guy at my age and Iget comments and questions on
Instagram and TikTok saying oh,have you had problems with your
shoulders, with your elbows,with your hands?
And almost, I'm almost at thepoint of saying I'd love to be

(48:24):
able to say yes, and this is howI overcame them.
But the bottom line is, thehonest truth is I never heard
any of these problems.
Okay, when I was boxing, Iburst a couple of knuckles.
At some point, I think I broke afinger, a pinky, once.

(48:44):
I can't remember how I did thatand that was it.
But I've never had any, and theonly time I've ever been in
hospital was to have tonsils outwhen I was 19.
So I'm lucky.
What can I say?
I can't offer you any kind ofmiracle cure for anything or say

(49:05):
this is what you should bedoing.
All I can say is this is what Ido, and if you were to
replicate what I do, you mightbe lucky, like me, and not have
the issues that many 78 and oldpeople do right, interesting, um
, that, yeah, that's reallyfascinating that definitely

(49:26):
there's a a component of goodgenetics, for sure, which is, I
guess you could say, luck orfate.

Ricardo (49:36):
Um, and speaking of luck or fate, do you, do you
believe in?
You don't have to answer this,but do you believe in a higher
power or a god or some sort likethat?
Do you?
Are you a religious man or aspiritual man?
By any means?

I, I, uh, I was raised a catholic and, uh, I
would go to mass every sunday,uh, with my dad, and it was
terrible, it was, was boring,because, as you're a kid, you
know, I kind of fell away fromthe church for years and years,
but I never gave up on it, youknow, and even today, well, up

(50:12):
until maybe a couple of yearsago, my wife and I would go to
Mass or a Sunday morning.
But then you know, know, if youmiss a couple of Sundays and
you kind of get back into thehabit, you need to be fully
invested in it.
Do I believe in a hundred power?
I'm coming round more and moretoday to give you the answer.

(50:40):
Not particularly, but maybe I'mhedging my bets, maybe I'm
saying, well, maybe there is onethere.
I mean, all our family grew upbelieving in a God and believing
there's something out there.
Now I came to the conclusionmany years ago that for me, god

(51:00):
was your conscience.
I don't know if that makessense to you, but for me it
meant if you follow yourconscience and try and do good
things you know, and help otherpeople, then that makes me feel
good and it makes me feel like,okay, I've done something good.

(51:22):
It may not necessarily be a Godthere, but my conscience is
telling me what's right andwhat's wrong and what.
How can I help that guy, howcan I help that person?
And it's just things that Ican't give you specifics.
But stupid things.

(51:44):
Stupid things in thesupermarket.
So there's an old woman infront of me at the checkout and
I'm waiting, and so the checkoutwoman says, yeah, it'll be such
and such, you know £10, £61 orwhatever.
And the woman's going and shepulls out.

(52:04):
I'd have wrote £8.
And she said I didn't thinkit'd be so expensive.
And the woman said oh well,we'll have to get.
You know, we'll have to seeabout this, we'll have to put
the goods back and all that.
And I thought why bother, youknow?
So I just said to the old womantake your shopping and
disappear.
And the checkout woman saidwhat do you think you're doing?

(52:25):
I said I'll just pick that up,and so I didn't do it for praise
or anything like that.
But what I'm seeing is thatcomes naturally to me.
And why does that comenaturally?
Because it's the kind of thingmy father would have done.
And I hate when there's an issueand there's been some where

(52:49):
I've kind of come across on thestreets or whatever, where
people turn away from others whoare maybe in a difficult
situation or in trouble orwhatever, and so how can you do
that?
How can you turn away?
Okay, I get it now where thestreets are filled with

(53:09):
dangerous people, but they'renot all dangerous and I figure I
always take the view.
Once you try to speak to peopleand reason with them and see
now this is the key for me tryand see their point of view,
then things become easier.
But if you go head on withsomebody and it's like I have

(53:30):
one point of view, you've gotanother and you're wrong and I'm
right, if you go down that road, my view is you're not going to
get anywhere.
You know I disagree with you.
I could sit in somebody.
You've got your point of view.
You're not going to change myview.
But I accept that you have apoint of view and you are

(53:50):
perfectly entitled to have yourpoint of view.
Why not?
We're in a free society,freedom of speech is everything.
And you know I'll tell you astory and I don't know if it's
any use to you.
I wrote a column for the eveningpaper here in Aberdeen.
For 20 years.

(54:11):
I used to work many years agoas a reporter there, but my
career moved on and on and on.
They came back to me and saiddo you write a weekly column?
It was an opinion column, right.
And there was an issue two orthree years ago where many girls
in Scotland were complainingthat they were having their

(54:34):
drinks spiked when they were outat nightclubs and so on.
And so I wrote a column aboutthis and I said well, the way
things are, you know, no matterwho you are, you have got to
take responsibility for your ownsafety.
Right, perfectly, in my view,perfectly reasonable stance to

(54:58):
take.
So if you're going out as ayoung girl, please be safe and
take responsibility for your ownsafety.
Don't expect somebody else tohelp you.
So the upshot of that one wasthat a member of parliament here
from the Scottish NationalParty instantly wrote a letter

(55:19):
and tweeted it for publicconsumption.
I wrote a letter to the editorof the paper, calling from my
head and saying that I wasvictim-worn, and I said okay.
So the editor phoned me.
He's in a panic because thiswoman's an MP and he said you've
got to apologize.
And I said for what?

(55:39):
Well, I think you've crossedthe line.
He was using her language, bythe way.
I said in what way?
He said well, that bit whereyou said you know, people have
got to take responsibility foryour own safety.
And I said to him who takesresponsibility for your safety
when you're out at night?
And there was radio silence.
He couldn't answer and he saidwell, I still think with you.

(56:01):
Anyway, the bottom line was Isaid I'm sorry, I can't
apologize for that.
Why should I?
But so this woman was trying toget me the sack, this MP and
you've got to be.
My dad always told me whateverhappens, be true to yourself,
whether you write the role inother people's hearts, if it's

(56:22):
in your heart and in your mindthat you're right and you've
examined all the arguments thenjust be true to what your
beliefs are.
So, going back, is there ahigher power?
Perhaps Am I convinced?

Ricardo (56:40):
100.
No, I know, I like, I like thatstory, um, and I, I see where
you're, where you're coming from, so you never did apologize.
I, I agree with what you'resaying.
By the way, I I don't think youmeant it.
Uh, the way the lady was tryingto make it seem like you did
and.

(57:00):
And that's what I hate aboutthese.
They they virtue signal.
You know, they try to, they tryto almost pin you in a corner
and it's like this is what youmeant.
Yeah, you're.
It's like.
No, that's not what I meant.
I meant that.

You know, the other thing is, this is the
editor I spoke to and I said Ijust call him out on this.
And I said, right away, I saiddid you read the column?
He said no.
But I said but it went in thepaper.
So who read it?
He said, well, the sub-editorread it.

(57:32):
I said the sub-editor thoughtit was okay to go out.
Yeah, so it went in.
So what's the big deal?
I said you're running scaredbecause a member of parliament
didn't like what I'd written andinstead of standing up for me
and saying, well, that's hisopinion, that's why we pay him
to write this column, you know.

(57:54):
And I said publish the woman'sletter and let's see what the
readers think.
Anyway, they're running scaredand and let's see what the
readers think.
Anyway, they're running scaredand I don't like that.
I think you've got to start.
In my view, this woman wasalmost bullying.
You know, sack this guy orwe've got to kick up a stink.
And they caved in to her.

(58:16):
Anyway, I'm still here, yeah,well, you know it's unfortunate,
but that's something that'shappened to many people.

Ricardo (58:19):
They caved in to her.
Anyway, I'm still here, yeah,well, you know it's unfortunate,
but that's something that'shappened to many people with
this whole cancel culture, andyou know we should be able to
have opinions even if they'renot an opinion that you agree
with.
It's what starts a goodconversation when you start to
offend people.

That's when it gets difficult.
And if you set out deliberatelyto offend or not so much offend
, but insult people, I don'thold anything with that.
I think you have to be calledout if that's what you're
intending to do.
If you're setting out a matterof opinion which is not designed

(58:59):
to offend or insult somebody,that's fair enough.

Ricardo (59:03):
Right.
So with respect to on the samething of the higher power or
whatnot, when we're talkingabout we talked about mindset
and your beliefs, it seems to melike you're a pretty and we
have a very limited interaction.
But it seems like you're apretty and that this is.
You know, we have a verylimited interaction, but it
seems like you're a very evenkeeled person like you.

(59:25):
You don't, yeah, fly off thehandle really easily.
You seem quite patient.
Yeah, uh, is that a goodassessment of you?
I know we we don't know eachother that well, but it seems
like you're a pretty, um,level-headed like you.
You think things through, youdon't just-headed, you think
things through.
You don't just react.
You like to think Is that afair assessment of you?

(59:46):
And perhaps your father, whichyou seem to have been impressed?

I think you're absolutely right.
I took that from my dad.
My dad had a short fusesometimes, but then he grew up
in very difficult times.
He lost his father in World WarI.
The man died when he was justsix when his father was killed.
So even at the age of six, witha mother with three other sons

(01:00:09):
so there were four sons and hewas a level-headed guy and he
was a strong character of a man.
Even at the age of six he hadto accept some responsibility
within that house, whether itwas, you know, running errands
or seeing to this or doing thatfor his mother or whatever.

(01:00:32):
And he devoted to his mother,my grandmother devoted to her,
to her dying day.
He would go and see her two orthree times a week.
He would take us a couple oftimes a week after mass every
Sunday and we'd go for lunch.
She was a focal point for allof us.
Am I level-headed?

(01:00:52):
I think so and I always.
You know I quote this.
This maybe sounds a bit corny,but there's a great poem, which
you'll probably know, called Ishby Rudyard Kipley, and it kind
of takes you through thequestion if, if this, if that

(01:01:12):
you'll be a man, my son.
So it's his father talking tohis son about all the different
things he should or could bedoing.
There's one line which says ifyou can take triumph and
disaster and treat those twoimposters just the same, you'll

(01:01:33):
be a man.
My son Now, they are imposters.
People fight.
You know, if you have thistriumph oh, look at me punching
the air.
You know gloating, touch andfury stuff.
You know demeaning people,being disgusting in their
behavior.
That's, you know, that's thetriumphalism which I dislike

(01:01:55):
intensely.
Then the other thing was youhave a disaster in your life.
You've got to think well, I canget over this.
It might not happen tomorrow orthe next day or next year.
I can get over this Triumph anddisaster.
There's somewhere in the middlewhich you can.

(01:02:16):
If you can treat those twoimposters just the same, then I
think, if you think in that way,then you'll get through your
difficult times and there willbe absolutely no need for you to
be a kind of blowhard and thekind of people that we see in
boxing today, all this nonsensethat you see at press

(01:02:40):
conferences and weigh-ins andhead-to-head I think I saw on
the news earlier on you sayyou're head-to-head smack-eating
jerk.
What Do people, you know, are westupid enough that that's going
to make us want to see themfight?
I just want to see them box.
I don't want to see all thisnonsense.

(01:03:01):
Oh, I must buy a ticket forthat, or I must go into the zone
and pay for a view to see thatfight.
Because look at them, they'recrushing heads, they're arguing
it's show business, it'sprofessional wrestling.
Wwe, that used to be, and so,or WWF, the two organizations

(01:03:22):
didn't they, and so that's whatwe're going back to, and I don't
like it.
I think boxing in its purestsense lies in the communities,
lies within the amateur boxingclubs.

Ricardo (01:03:35):
I agree with you.
I don't like it either, but thetruth is, controversy sells,
sells, and it's this drama thatthey, they create and the
negativity that comes with it.
It does sell, and it'sunfortunate, because, now, the
best fighters are notnecessarily the most popular,
and the most popular fightersare often the ones that are the

(01:03:56):
most disrespectful or theloudest, or they, they get
arrested on the weekends andthey, they say all kinds of
nonsense, and it's unfortunate Iit's, it's, it's, uh, you know.
It's unfortunate because itdrowns out the ones who are more
humble and quiet and thatreally have talent.
Yes, the same thing applies inmma and uf.

(01:04:16):
If you watch ufc or any of that, you see these, these like
larger than life personalities,are, like you know, like conor
mcgregor.
He's a phenomenal athlete,phenomenal, uh, fighter.

Frank Gilfeather (01:04:27):
He's not the best though, but he's the most
popular, and it's because ofthat same showboating and loud
and obnoxious and well, that'sprobably true, uh, Ricardo, but
my take on it is this it's aturn-up for me, Right, and I

(01:04:49):
First, the overriding feeling Iget when I see the Conor
McGregors and the Tyson Furiesand these kind of guys is I hate
them.
You know, I think there isabsolutely no need for you, and
I might argue with you that thepublic are now.

(01:05:12):
We're treating the public likekids, like idiots, and rather
than saying this is the bigfight, you might go back to the
great days watching and readingRidd Magazine and watching big
fights where the twoprotagonists walk down the aisle

(01:05:34):
, no music, no flashing lights,no thumping bass music.
They get into the ring.
The ring announcer takes threeminutes to announce it's the
heavyweight championship, it'sbetween so-and-so and so-and-so
and the referee is so-and-so.
Now you've got Michael Bufferand these guys who are the ring

(01:05:57):
announcers taking 10 minutes toget around to honestly naming
the fighters, because you geteverything.
The ring announcers taking 10minutes to get around to
honestly naming the fightersBecause you get everything.
What they're wearing, thesecolour shorts yeah, we could see
that.
We've got eyes.
We don't need to see what he'sbeing told, what colour shorts
he's wearing.
They weigh in at this.
Well, that's fine.
We need to know that the judgesare A, B and C.

(01:06:19):
We don't need to know who thejudges are B and C.
We don't even know who thejudges are, you know.
The next thing is you'll begetting the judges addresses and
their phone numbers, theirinside life.
It's crazy.
It goes on and on and on.
Meanwhile, somebody who's paid Idon't know what they pay for
these fights, how to go andwatch them live, but if I'm
there, I'm just I've paid.
I don't know a thousand dollarsor whatever they pay, and I'm

(01:06:40):
there, I've paid.
I don't know $1,000 or whateverthey pay, and I'm ringside.
I just think come on, just geton with it.
I've been waiting months forthis contest.
Why drag it out for anotherhalf hour?
You know, let's get on with it.
That's what I loved about theold boxers the Sugar Ray
Robinsons, Rocky Marciano, JoelLewis go in, do the business out

(01:07:01):
, and there was no big TV dealin those days.
And this is the thing, right,Professional boxing nowadays is
dictated to by the TV networksand promoters.
So here's my question what'shappened to the British Boxing
Board of Control, the WBO, theWBC, the WBC, all these random

(01:07:26):
some of them are random boxingorganizations who are getting, I
don't know, 3% of the gatemoney, 2% of the TV money or
whatever, and what they'veeffectively done is just step
back and say to the promoters on, you, go, do exactly as you
please, and there is no kind ofruling over what they're doing.

(01:07:51):
Nobody's stepping up to say youcan't do that, we need to do it
this way, this is the way wewant it.
They're just taking the money,stepping back and allowing the
promoters to run the show.

Ricardo (01:08:04):
Yeah, yeah, it's a different time, for sure, and
and you know, I'm, I'm I canappreciate both sides of it, but
I definitely see where you'recoming from too, because
sometimes, sometimes now, thefights start late and I'm like,
oh man, I'm going to fall asleepby the time they even the
co-main event starts.
So, frank, I want to ask youwhat?

(01:08:24):
What do you do?
For you know managing stressand that, if you have any, how
do you any tips for people likehow you manage stress?
Or you know, life always hasits ups and downs, right,
there's going to be good times,bad times.
How do you, how do you navigatethat, the tough times, the
overwhelming emotions and thingslike that, because that's

(01:08:46):
important for health, right?
So I'm just curious how you,how you, navigate through that
you know.

Well, that's an interesting point.
Um, listen, um, I, if I was, Iused to, I used to say to
everybody I refuse to recognizestress Right Now.
That's a very glib statementbecause and I'm not trying to
say everybody should be the sameas me.

(01:09:09):
What I'm saying is somehow Idon't suppress it, but I keep it
within myself and I don't seeit's anybody's problem or
anybody's business.
I've never discussed stresswith a close friend or anybody

(01:09:33):
like that.
My wife is my closest friendand we would discuss things if
we had problems over whateverfamily issues, I don't know
financial issues, anything likethat.
I think the key for me is Idon't let stress get on top of
me, because I think it's adownward spiral and it's

(01:09:55):
unhealthy.
That's easy for me to see,because I can manage stress and
I'm trying to put myself intothe shoes of people who find it
difficult to manage stress, andso I guess what I'm saying is if
you have a close friend,they've got to be really, really

(01:10:16):
close.
I have lots of friends.
I have no close friends now.
My closest friend died about ayear ago, but even then I would
never discuss such personalstuff with him.

(01:10:37):
Now that's just me.
I find myself sounding terriblehere him.
Now, that's just me.
I'm finding myself soundingterrible here Sometimes, some
kind of conquering.
Why we say to people with stressis try and get some physical
activity into your life.
If you cannot, if you're acertain age and a certain

(01:10:58):
physique, that's never going tohappen.
If you're a certain age and acertain physique, that's never
going to happen.
You know what I used to say topeople, to kids.
I once wrote a play for thetheatre in my native Dundee
Dundee Repertory Theatre.
That was a famous repertorytheatre because it spawned the
careers of people like EdwardFox and Glenda Jackson and

(01:11:22):
Vanessa Red Gravel.
They all started their careersat Dundee Rep.
So many, many more.
Brian Cox, a good friend ofmine from succession, and Brian
and I were at school togetherdifferent schools but the same
age and we first encounteredeach other at Dundee Rep.
We went to see a play and hewas in it in a small role, he

(01:11:44):
was only 16, and I was terriblyjealous and we kept in touch.
But the stress thing is, if youcan't be physically active, in
other words something that willrelieve your stress or help a
bit with it, then do you knowwhat?

(01:12:05):
I hope it's easy for me to saythis is terrible.
I'm trying to get my headaround this.
Write things down, write thingsanything.
Write things about yourself.
Write things about your family.
Write things about your pastlife.
Write things down.
If you've got a laptop or a PC,write things about your past

(01:12:25):
life.
Write things down.
If you've got a laptop or a PC,all the better.
But if not, get an old book andwrite things down and that may,
I hope, alleviate some of thestress and tension that you're
feeling, and it's a greattherapy.
I always found writing's a greattherapy and you would get stuff

(01:12:45):
out and you'll feel good at theend of it and you'd feel things
large, you know, and you learnstuff about yourself.
You can dredge up stuff in yourmind that you'd forgotten about
.
Wow, I remember that.
So write about your family.
Write about your own lifepreferably about your own life

(01:13:06):
and tell yourself the story ofyour life and where it's going
and where it's been and thedifficulties and the people that
you met and the people you knewand the bad guys and the good
guys.
For me and I'd love to you knowwhat I'd love to hear some
feedback on that thinking andalso I'd love people who take

(01:13:27):
that advice from me to get backin some way to say that helped
me.
That's like winning the worldchampionship for me.
If one person came back andsaid you know what, that was a
great show you gave us.
I went away and I wrote downabout my childhood, about my

(01:13:48):
brother, about the people I knew, the people I lost and all that
.
It's a wonderful therapywriting.

Ricardo (01:13:56):
I totally agree with you.
By the way, I can give you somefeedback.
Number one I believe inexercise as a form of, you know,
self-therapy.
I think it's really importantand, uh, I'm a big, uh reader
and writer.
I, I write a lot, right, Iwrite for work, I write for
everything, but I also write mythoughts and I've been like that
for a long time and I think itit's very, very helpful yeah.

(01:14:20):
Because if you keep it all inyour head, it's stuck there in a
sense and I feel like when Iwrite it's almost like I'm
bleeding on the page.
It's like I'm able to organizemy thoughts and I get it out,
and then if I go to sleep I wakeup with clarity.
Sometimes it's like an epiphany.

That's interesting, ricardo.
One of the things that Istruggle with just now is
getting off to sleep Right, oh,okay.

Ricardo (01:14:52):
I was going to ask you about that.

Not so very long ago, I could sleep on a
tightrope and nobody would getme waken.
I loved sleeping and what'shappened recently is apparently
because of this school scenario,of the uh, social media stuff,

(01:15:13):
I, I go to my bed and I'm in themiddle of writing another book
uh, this time a crime novel,right, and I was so lazy I put
it to the side and I go back toit weeks later and I forget
about it.
I said, oh right, I must goback.
And then I go, maybe I'll trysomething.

(01:15:33):
So my brain flits from thing tothing and I go back at night and
I'm thinking all right, whathave I got?
I've got Ricardo on a podcast.
I've got this to do.
I've got to record some videosand what am I going to say there
?
And I have to write this thingthat some guys ask me to write

(01:15:53):
500 words, and I'm doing my own.
I've got to redo my own podcast.
I need to fix up guests, allthat stuff.
And I find out how my mind isracing and I try to get myself
to just cool my jets and sayhang on, you know, just try and
go to sleep.
Eventually I get to sleep, butif I'm waking up at one point

(01:16:16):
during the night, try and getback to sleep.
It's not because I'm worriedabout anything.
It's because I want to be inorder.
I want to be kind of, make surethat everything's in place the
next day and I know what I'mgoing to be doing.
So, from that point of view,this whole kind of thing about
my reinventing myself one tiptop and instagram has been a

(01:16:39):
nightmare it was funny I was.

Ricardo (01:16:44):
I was gonna ask you that.
That was my next question, likehow, how do you recover?
What do you do for recovery,which includes sleep, and you
know you, you obviously do a lotand cognitively you're sharp.
So I know you're, you're goingand then like right now, over

(01:17:04):
there, it's what?

uh, oh, it's nine nine something, 9, 15, 9,
20, yeah, yeah, and I'm sorry,I'm keeping you but you, this is
like you're this.

Ricardo (01:17:14):
You've already talked to several people.
We had our delays earlier,which was well over an hour.
You're training, you're youknow.
So how do you recover from that, even when times where you're
struggling to get to sleep, andwhat's your secret or what's
your routine?
Well, my routine you know, doyou sleep a lot?
Do you sleep a lot or?

Well, no, I just want to say that you know,
sometimes maybe I've eaten, at 5o'clock, say, and I like to
show six-o'clock news bulletinscoming up.
I like to watch six-o'clocknews bulletins for half an hour
and then I'll shake my head inmy wish I'm going to have a nap

(01:17:58):
and I just lie down on the couchand you know what?
You could throw hand grenadesin my living room and you would
wake me.
I'm completely above you and,Mindy, that's my problem.
Shana keeps saying to me listen, if you didn't have that nap,
you would get the sweet.
So I've tried it right, I'm notgoing to, and I feel myself

(01:18:19):
needing it sweetly.
No, no, I'll fight it and I'llwatch a documentary or whatever,
and then we'll go to bed andit's made absolutely no
difference.
I'm still thinking how do I getto sleep?
So I don't know, I do not.
I do not for 30 to 60 minuteslate afternoon or six o'clock

(01:18:43):
later, and that's great, I getthe best sleep I get.
But on the other hand, I don'tknow.
Sunday night I've still gotsome kind of sleep problem.
I don't.
I eventually get a sleep andthen in the morning, try and get
me up early, and it's virtuallyimpossible.
Actually, we're off earlytomorrow to a place called Elgin

(01:19:06):
to do a seminar up there, andthat kind of spurs me on.
I'm thinking, wow, I'm lookingforward to this, I'm just the
luck of God.
I'm just lucky there's not somuch going on in my life at this
age, that's beautiful when.
I look around and see somepeople my age thinking, well,
they've given up and they'remaybe in care, and it's terrible

(01:19:30):
.
I just wish, and I hope, forfuture generations, that we look
at what we're doing now andlearn lessons from what we
shouldn't do as much as fromwhat we should be doing.
And I look around at theobesity problem and obese kids

(01:19:51):
and I feel like going up toparents out in the street when I
see them walking with theirobese kids and I feel like going
up and saying please, you'rekilling your child, please get a
grip and sort yourself out andshow a good example for your
child.
And because this boy or thisgirl is going to suffer and it's

(01:20:14):
going to probably die muchyounger than they should, and so
I would love to get thatmessage over.
And, to be honest with you, thecomments on my videos are such
that I'm getting the messagethrough.
I get so many messages frompeople who are of a certain age

(01:20:37):
who say you know, I haven't beenin the gym for years, but
you've inspired me to go back tothe gym.
I'm going to go back and I amback and I take my friends with
me.
We're going three times a weekand we're doing this and my
answer is I'm proud of you.
Don't overdo it.
Make sure you're alleverything's done within your
own limits and don't push it toomuch, otherwise it could have

(01:21:02):
an adverse effect.
So this is the big deal for me.
If people are A acting on myadvice on boxing, that's great,
and B if they're actually goingback to punch the bag even
though they're useless orwhatever, that's a big plus for

(01:21:23):
me.
That's why I love to hear.

Ricardo (01:21:26):
Well, you're certainly an inspiration for myself as
well, and I mean that because Ilook at that as, oh, this is
what's possible and it's atarget to aim for, because most
people their goal is they wantto retire.
I don't believe in retirement,you know.
I don't even know what thatmeans.
Like to me it's I never want tostop pursuing something.

(01:21:48):
Right, you might want to switchcareers, sure, but you never
could just say, oh, I'm done,I'm just going to do nothing all
day, like no, that's where youdie.
So I look at how you are.
It's an inspiration, and I knowfor a fact that there's tons of
people that would hear yourwords or see you doing what
you're doing, and they're justlike I've got to get my ass up.

(01:22:12):
I'm like I've got to get moving, I've got to get pushing, it's
all up there.
Yeah, well, that's what I'mtaking away mostly from you is
you have a very strong mind.
I think you got it from yourdad.

Your barrier is up there, not your body.
Your barrier is up there If youget over that first hurdle
which is up there, which issaying, nah, you don't want to
go to the gym, why do you wantto do something nice on TV or
have a beer or whatever?
But if you can't overcome thatbarrier, you've got no chance.

(01:22:42):
I agree If you say, right, I'mgoing to go and do it.
And then at the end of it youthink, well, I wish I hadn't
done that, because I'm sore, I'mtired, I'm aching, I'm not
going back.
That's your next barrier is toovercome.
Go back.
You hated it.
Yeah, because you haven't doneit for 20 or 30 years.
Go back.
Yeah, because you haven't doneit for 20 or 30 years.
Go back, go back, keep goingback.

(01:23:03):
You know what, in a couple ofweeks, three weeks, four weeks,
you'll think, wow, I'm glad Idid that.

Ricardo (01:23:13):
And it's given me a new lease of life 100%.
And on the topic of sleep, howmany hours of sleep would you
say you do get, once you finallyget to sleep on average?

About eight.

Ricardo (01:23:26):
Oh, so you do sleep a lot.

Well, lots of it is interrupted.
But I was going to say to youearlier my wife will get up in
the morning and she knows now.
She said you're not a morningperson, are you?
And I said no, and maybe it'sgoing back to my boxing days
when my coach used to knock onthe door at 6 o'clock in the

(01:23:50):
morning and say, right, I'd beready to do three miles, four
miles of running with heavyarmy-style boots on, Not the
army-style boots that you wearnow, but the ones what we call
tackerty boots.
They were all tacks and heavy.
You know metal studs at thebottom, Heavy boots like the

(01:24:11):
coal miners would wear and we'dgo around.
Maybe that's a throwback.
I'm hopeless in the mornings,Absolutely useless, and if I get
requests for things like thispodcast and so on, I'll say yeah
, I can make it kind of latemorning, early afternoon,
because I'm better At night time.

(01:24:33):
I can go on for ages.
My first book I wrote, and itwas a ghost written book of a
football soccer manager I wroteand I did it.
I wrote every night till 2 and3 in the morning because that
was when I felt at my best.
So maybe my body clock, maybe Ishould have been a night shift

(01:24:56):
worker in a previous life and mybody clock seems to be all
better accented towards, uh,nighttime that's funny.

Ricardo (01:25:08):
So, uh, on the end do you still have some time.
I have a few more questions,okay, sorry, sorry, I could talk
to you for hours, man, this is,this is awesome.
Um, so, on the topic ofexercise, obviously you big
believer in exercising.
What do you do for exercisebesides?

well, you tell me, everything you do that
falls under the umbrella ofexercise well, everything I do
is in the boxing gym, although Ido, I like to walk.
I mean, I'm not saying I go andwalk.
In the better weather inScotland we go out to Royal
Decide right, which is towardsBalnor, where the Queen.
In the better weather inScotland we go out to Royal
Deeside right, which is towardsBalnoral where the Queen lives.

(01:25:46):
We go out there, we drive aboutthe place.
There's a castle there outtowards that, called Crathus
Castle right.
So we go out At weekends, we goout there and walk I don't know
three miles around the estateof Carthage Castle, and we'd do

(01:26:06):
different ones, but mainly thatone.
Or we'd walk along the RiverDee, which is one of the most
famous salmon fishing rivers inthe world, and so we would maybe
walk three, four miles and thatwould be a little bit of
exercise.
But my main exercise is in thegym.
So when I go to the gym toshoot my vinyls and so on, I

(01:26:30):
still think so you're thinkingwell, okay, let's run each type
of time, let's do the videos.
We'll knock off three or fourvideos, maybe more, maybe seven
or eight videos, and that's kindof short burst.
On a Sunday, for example, I goto the gym and there's a big

(01:26:50):
turnout there.
We've maybe got 20 boxers andthey have sparring and so on.
But I would do a lot of whatthey're doing and so I would do
skipping three rounds.
I would do three lot of whatthey are doing and so I would do
skipping three rounds.
I would do three roundsshadowboxing, three on the punch
bag, and then I don't spar.

(01:27:13):
I wish I could.
So then I do my exercisesstanding exercises, various
exercises and then floor it.
I'm on my back, I'm doingsit-ups, I'm doing press-ups,
I'm doing all the kind of stuffthat I've done since I was a kid
.
Really, people have moved on.
They've welcomed back See theseyoung guys.
They're all doing verydifferent stuff that I try to

(01:27:35):
keep up with.
I can't.
Maybe 80% of the time I cankeep up, but it's killer.
Next, the time I can keep up,but it's killer, for the next
day I can only get on my bed.
So I try.
I can't do what they do, but Ican go some way towards that and

(01:27:55):
so that keeps me.
So I'm in the gym two or threetimes a week and I'm doing all
that kind of stuff and the stuffthat you see on video, which is
quite exhausting.

Ricardo (01:28:08):
Right.
And in the winter, when it'scolder, do you still walk at all
, or no, those days you don't gowalking.

Generally speaking, yeah, we still go
walking.

Ricardo (01:28:20):
But if it's raining or snowing.

It's not snowing so often these days, but
if it's raining, of course,then we wouldn't.
But yeah, we still drive outand park the car and the way we
go on our walk and it's terrific.
I mean, it does a lot andthat's what I say to people.
I've said that on the videos.
I said I'm not telling you.
You join a gym or go to aboxing club.

(01:28:44):
If you can and you want to dothat and if you can afford it,
fine.
The boxing clubs are, you know,dirt cheap.
You can, you know, you just paytwo or three pounds, five
pounds at the most.
But, and you can't, there's noneed for you to join, uh, a gym,
a membership gym where you'repaying.
You know, I don't have anycanadian dollars a month there's

(01:29:09):
no need for that because thethe gym is on your doorstep.
Now I did a lot of videos indifferent parts of my city, down
at the beach, at differentspots, different scenic spots
throughout Aberdeen.

(01:29:29):
In the city centre they have athing called Union Terrace
Gardens which just spent 40million pounds on renovating and
making better.
I go there and I could skip andshadow box, you know, early on
a Sunday morning, even at nineo'clock on Sunday morning.

(01:29:50):
There's nobody there.
So there are places your backgarden.
What's wrong with doing somestuff in your back garden?
Just ruin stuff, you know, andyou're.
If you're thinking along thoselines, maybe to join a gym or
join a boxing club, no matterwhat your age is, start off in
your back guard.

(01:30:10):
Get some movement going, getsome shirra boxing going, stuff
that will make you tired, stuffthat will exhaust you but will
get those endorphins going andmake you feel good.

Ricardo (01:30:23):
I totally agree.
I tell people that all the timenow when they approach me or
they ask for advice and I sayyou're overcomplicating it.
I think you first just want todevelop the habit, and so this
might sound stupid, but I dobelieve in starting small,
because you want to get thehabit right and so even I tell

(01:30:44):
them, even if you just pack yourgym bag and you put your shoes
on and you just get in the habitof doing that and then going to
the gym, literally walk in andwalk out, or if it's not the gym
, whatever it is, but get intothat routine of every day doing
this at this time and over timeit just becomes a part of you.
It's an identity.
Like if I miss my, if I miss myworkouts whether it's at home,

(01:31:07):
at the gym, it doesn't matter,as long as I do something.
If I miss them for more than aplan like unless I planned to
take a week off if I miss morethan a week, I start to go crazy
.
I'm like I I I get irritable.
Like I miss my body is likewhat are you doing?
I need to get back.
It's almost like an addiction.

Well, it is.
Well, it's a habit, it's ahealthy addiction.
And nothing but good can comefrom it 100%.

Ricardo (01:31:38):
Like you said for me, I was in and out of trouble doing
stupid kid stuff when I wasyounger and and the gym exercise
and martial arts for sure keptme out of trouble, of course,
because I didn't want to let mycoaches down, I didn't want to
let my teammates down, I didn'twant to let my training partners
down.
I knew like, oh, I gotta meetthem tomorrow morning.

(01:32:00):
So when my back then, myfriends at that time were up to
no good, they were like, oh, Igotta meet them tomorrow morning
.
So when my back then, myfriends at that time were up to
no good, they were like, oh,come out.
I was like I gotta sleep and Igotta be up early because I
can't let this guy down, becausethis coach is gonna kill me if
I don't show up on time and Idon't want to do 200 push-ups,
you know yeah, you're right,you're absolutely right.
Yeah, it definitely saved mylife in many ways, so good

(01:32:24):
that's why?

you know?
Because you know we, I've seenit hundreds of times where you
get boys 14, 15, 16, they'recoming to the gym, they're
training, they're doing well,some of them are becoming
potential stars and then youfind, oh, where is, where is he?
He hasn't come back.
Oh right, he's missed out,maybe he's ill.

(01:32:45):
And we go by and he hasn't comeback.
And why hasn't he come back?
Because his friends are sayingI don't want to go to the gym,
we're going down to meet somegirls or we're going to go to a
club or whatever.
Come and join us.
And he's kind of pooled betweenthem.

(01:33:06):
Now I came across one recently.
I was filming I better not saywhere or who this guy is, but we
were filming at a boxing cluband I was doing a seminar and I
was at a boxing club and I cameacross this guy who was well
trying not to identify.

(01:33:26):
Identify him.
He was a big fella tall and hewas 16.
He might have been 50, can'tremember, but he was
extraordinarily tall for his ageand he was not exceptional, but
he was very, very good as aboxer and had great potential

(01:33:47):
and he was giving it everything.
The night we were there and hisdad was so proud.
Dad was so proud of him and hesaid, oh, he's completely bought
into what you're teaching andall that.
And I could see that.
And then, lo and behold, so herewe are.
What?
Six months or whatever down theline and his coach contacted me

(01:34:10):
and he said to me do youremember so-and-so?
And I said, yeah, of course hesaid he hasn't come back.
He said he was starting to comein in recent weeks and taking
too long to come out of the gym,come out of the changing room,
kind of delaying entry to thegym, killing time.

(01:34:32):
So he didn't have to do thework and we kept saying come on,
what's keeping you?
I'll be there in a minute, thatkind of stuff.
And then he just stopped comingand I said how old is he?
And the guy said 16.
And I said, well, you know why?
And he said, yeah, I know why.
Because all his friends aresaying come on, don't go to the

(01:34:53):
gym, come with us, we're goingto have fun tonight, we're going
to do this and we're going todo that.
And when that comes into theequation, then you've just got
to say, okay, that's life, youknow, that's, that's what kids
do.
You can.
You can go and say look, youknow, don't do this, you, you'll
have a better life if youcontinue what you're doing.

(01:35:14):
And my hope is and I'm going toleave it a few weeks I'm going
to reach out to this kid and say, look, get back to the gym and
just do it for me, and maybe bythen he will have had his hit,
if you like, of going out withhis pals and having fun and

(01:35:37):
enjoying himself.
And he'll maybe say, okay,right, it's not all it's cracked
up to be.
I can still go out with themand such and such a night, but
I'm still going to go to the gymseat actually.
So that's when you lose them.
That's the age group that youlose them.

Ricardo (01:35:53):
Yeah, for sure, that's when I strayed in, but luckily I
had a good coach and thosethings helped me out a lot.
So, Frank, I think we can wrapit up.
But I do want to ask you aquestion.
As far as you know your biggesttips and we kind of touched on

(01:36:14):
a lot of different things but ifyou could say the most
important thing that you feel itis for somebody who's pursuing
health or wants to improve theirhealth, if you could say what,
what do you feel is like themost important?
If there is something in yourmind what do you mean?

the end product, the healthy fitness
thing?
What do you mean?
Yeah, yeah yeah, sorry.

Ricardo (01:36:35):
Um, as far as, like, health, for somebody who wants
to improve or optimize theirhealth, um, you know what?
What do you think is really themost important thing?

the, the foundation well, the foundation,
of course, is do everything inmoderation, right, if you like a
drink, do it in moderation.
If you don't smoke, if, if yousmoke, forget it, give up
smoking and all this vapingstuff that goes on.

(01:37:07):
You know that's only leadingyou down a path which is going
to end as an all-through road,as a cul-de-sac, where there's
nothing at the end of it for youbut bad health.
So you've got to give up thatNow.
Now I know that that's e for meto say, because I never smoked
and I'm not a big drinker.

(01:37:28):
I mean, I'm going out with agroup of journalists, colleagues
, next week.
Eight of us go out about threeor four times a year we have
dinner, and we have, we have afew glasses of wine and we
exchange our stories.
That's about the limit of myalcohol intake, you know, in any

(01:37:49):
given year, for example.
So if you're able to say, youknow, guys go to the pub,
they're drinking a place of beer, and I don't try to say that
you know they're bad people,they're not bad people.
What I try to say is can younot see that without physical

(01:38:12):
activity in your life, you arebeing diminished?
If you have physical activityand therefore, in my view,
mental alertness, how else areyou going to live your life?
But in a good way, and if itmakes you feel better and you

(01:38:33):
can see a difference, if you'resitting there and think well,
I've been doing this for sixweeks.
I've given up smoking, you know, my drinking has been cut back,
moderate stuff, I'm walking,I've joined a gym or whatever I
do physically, it will changeyour life and it will change
your life for the better.

(01:38:54):
But what's most important, moreimportant than anything else,
it will prolong your life.
If you, you know, if you keepdown a path, while smoking,
drinking, poor, eating, as muchas anything, as bad as anything,
all that stuff, then yourlifestyle will come to a

(01:39:19):
conclusion earlier and your lifewill come to a conclusion
earlier.
Your life will come to aconclusion earlier than it might
have had you been looking afteryourself.
So everything in moderation.
Look after your body, keep yourmind sharp, read, be aware, be
aware of what's going on aroundyou in the world.
Have opinions, but make thoseopinions informed opinions.

(01:39:45):
Don't just go and kind ofrabbit stuff, fake news from any
of the social media challenges,and believe in that.
Ask questions, go and examinethings.
You hear my thing?
The other day come up and a guysent me a TikTok and it was one

(01:40:08):
of these.
What do you call that?
A screen save TikTok.
And it was to tell me that suchand such a football manager in
England had quit and I thoughtit's funny, I haven't heard of
that.
And I thought, oh, that's funny, I haven't heard of that.
And I read through your website.
So no, I'll tell you what.

(01:40:28):
It was a big name TV star inthe UK has died and it looked
great.
It was from.
It wasn't a TikTok, it was BBCNews website.
And I went wow.
So I immediately went on theBBC website.
I could see it nowhere, butthis person, you know, believed

(01:40:49):
it because it was on socialmedia, right, but we're getting
off it.
We've gotten off this subjecthere and I'm sorry about that.
Ricardo, it's all aboutmoderation.
Hold back with anyoverindulgence.
If you overindulge in anything,then make it a one-off, or make

(01:41:11):
it every now and again, once ayear, and that's about Easter,
as we used to say in theCatholic church.
So make sure that you pull back.
Make sure you gauge your ownbehavior.
If you're thinking, wow, I wentsore head hangover, I'm not
going to do that again and trynot to do it again.

(01:41:35):
You will do it again, possibly,but keep everything kind of
even keel no highs, no lows inyour eating or drinking or your
lifestyle.
Keep it on an even keel.

Ricardo (01:41:50):
I like that my dad used to say that a lot, everything
in moderation.
Absolutely Okay, frank, I thinkwe're good.
I got something coming up, butI I really want to thank you for
your time, but before I do that, do you have anything?

(01:42:11):
I'm going to include it in theshow notes and everything, but
do you have anything that youyou want to promote or you know
where can people find you first?

of of all.
Well, they can get me onInstagram, which is
FranksNobleArt.
All written out one wordFranksNobleArt.
That's on Instagram.
On TikTok it's at Gilfeather,g-i-l-f-e-n-e-t-h-e-r, which is

(01:42:45):
lowercase.
And what I'd quite like to tellyou is this and I've got a BM,
I've worn it about when I cameback to training in the gym
after the pandemic and so on,and I found that all the young
boxers were wearing sparringgloves on the pouch back.

(01:43:06):
I thought these are nice becausethey look great.
Every company in the world,every sports company in the
world, has got boxing gloves andthey're all different colours
and they're very attractive.
A company sent me three pairsworth about $500.
And I thought, well, these arelovely, and they wanted me to

(01:43:28):
wear them.
And this was the early days ofTikTok, before we really took
off and took off on Instagram,and they said, well, maybe you
can wear these on the bike.
And I said, okay, fine, no bigdeal, I'll wear them.
And I tried them.
And I tried them two or threeor four times and I started.
I was waking up in the middle ofthe night with sore fingers
here, right, and then I came torealise I'd sink it through it's

(01:43:52):
eight gloves.
The thumb is fixed to the mainpart of the glove by a little
piece of elastic which is inhere, and so what that meant was
you push your hand in the glove, the thumb goes in there, the
fist goes in there and they'reso rigid that you can clench

(01:44:16):
your fist like that, and whatI'm saying is not really Right.
That's the imperfection.

Ricardo (01:44:21):
Can't make a full, really right so you're like.

So I think, why have you, why can't I?
And it's because of this thisis a new thing to me so I tried
to hurt my hands.
I had to ditch them and I wentback to my old bag mitts.
So the old style bag mitts werekind of limited padding here,

(01:44:45):
but no padding in the thumb, andthat allowed me to do that and
that therefore allowed me topunch with the knuckle part of
the glove, which is the properway.
So I'm thinking all these youngkids, because the gloves are
dictating where their handshould be, are punching
incorrectly and that's whyyou've seen this kind of

(01:45:06):
punching, because you can't getthe hand turned, so they're
punching like this.
So I thought this is no good.
So I think how do I prove?
On the old style bag mitts,well, I decided let's get
something made and I got somesamples made and I made a better
padding here, eight ounces, andI had the original bag mitt

(01:45:30):
thumb, which was no padding, andit meant I could do that and it
changed everything and so, okay, I tried them, I liked them and
I started making them, and theupshot is that I can't begin to
tell you that we get orders fromevery corner of the world.

Ricardo (01:45:55):
That's cool yeah.

Toronto is a big market, and Montreal and
also right across the state andFar East Tokyo everywhere.
So people have kind of caughton to this and thinking he's
actually right, this is what weneed.
We don't need thesepyrotechnics.
That's my plug.

Ricardo (01:46:17):
I love it.
I'm going to try those out.
I want to order a pair from you.

Well, you should have a look on the
website.
Get them there.
We can't keep up.
In fact, we're waiting for anew batch to come in on February
17th and they're virtually allspoken for, and then after that,
another batch and we're goingto bring out a white pair and a
black pair and they style thevintage looking.

(01:46:42):
The brown ones are vintage,they're brown cowhide and,
honest to goodness, I'm gettingpeople from boxing clubs all
over the world saying this haschanged my way of training
that's really cool.

Ricardo (01:46:58):
I'm I'm actually gonna grab a pair and then, uh, I'll
communicate with you guys so Ican get in on the next batch,
and then I'll make some videoson it and shout, you guys out
for sure please do that's whatwe want.
I hit the bag for my cardio aswell, sometimes as a finisher or
whatever.

I'd love to see that video when you get the
gloves now I got.

Ricardo (01:47:23):
Oh yes, for sure.
I'm a little nervous.
Now I'm going to be like mytechnique and everything yeah,
but it's not just good yeah, no,no for sure.
Yeah, frank, that's awesome.
I will definitely include allthat in the show notes and
everything, and we'll be intouch very soon.
And I I really want to thankyou again for, uh, taking the

(01:47:46):
time to do this.
You didn't have to, um, youknow, um, I, I know you're a
busy guy and you guys gave me a,a shot to talk, so that that
really means a lot to me and Ihope we can do this part two and
a part three and, who knows,maybe meet someday anytime,
happy to do it.

Ricardo, thank you very much.
You've been a great host andI've loved it.
Thanks again.

Ricardo (01:48:08):
Okay, take care, frank, bye.
Thank you for tuning in.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please take a moment to like,
subscribe and leave a commentand, if possible, leave a review
.
Forward it to your friends andfamily.
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Remember to sign up for my free5 Health Hacks newsletter at

(01:48:30):
youthfulagingsecretscom.
Forward slash subscribe.
I wish you good health and I'llsee you in the next episode.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#12: Forbidden Secrets To Staying Young At 78 With Frank Gilfeather

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#12: Forbidden Secrets To Staying Young At 78 With Frank Gilfeather

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