FROM OUTLAW PRIZEFIGHTS TO THE AMERICAN DREAM: THE ST. PAUL PHANTOM OPENS FOR PRE-ORDERS

Drawing from a long-lost family archive, Dr. Gerard Gibbons Revives the Lost Story of Irish-American Boxing Brothers Mike and Tommy Gibbons Ahead of America’s 250th Anniversary

ST. PAUL, MN, May 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- More than a century after the Gibbons brothers stepped out of the prize ring, an American story of faith, family, and perseverance reaches readers. THE ST. PAUL PHANTOM: The Gibbons Brothers’ Fight for Glory, Volume I, the new narrative history by Dr. Gerard Gibbons (Fight for Glory Press), releases June 9, 2026, opening a planned trilogy that traces an Irish-American family across nearly a century of American life.

Pre-orders are live across all retailers: https://books2read.com/b/4AqjyJ

The “mystery boxes” that fuel this story came to Dr. Gerard Gibbons in 1999 from a father who would not live to see them opened. They sat untouched for decades. Inside lay a forgotten American saga: clippings and diaries, photographs and love letters, the story of the author’s Irish immigrant family that crossed to America in the 1880s and met the turbulent new century head-on. 

At the center were two brothers, the women who shaped their lives, and a father haunted by the violence and bloodshed of his rebel past, searching for redemption in America. Mike, the author’s great-uncle, was the cerebral ring master they called “The Phantom” for the ghostlike grace with which he moved through a fight. Tommy, the author’s grandfather, was the fearless puncher who would one day face Jack Dempsey on a Montana prairie. A young suffragist challenged everything Mike thought he wanted from life. A wife’s mental illness shadowed a marriage and a generation. An immigrant mother held the family together when nearly everything else fell apart.

Credibility runs deep: a West Coast Boxing Hall of Fame Book of the Year designation, an International Boxing Research Organization feature review, US Review of Books RECOMMENDED status, IndieReader STARRED review, and endorsements from Oscar-nominees Paul Tamasy (The Fighter) and Brian Frankish (Field of Dreams), Grammy winner Frank Stallone, and Men’s Health (“electrifying and elegant”).

THE ST. PAUL PHANTOM releases June 9, 2026 across all major retail and library channels, with the audiobook following this summer. The book is positioned within America 250 commemorations. Sign up for exclusive early access and updates at Fight for Glory. 

About the Author and the Book

Dr. Gerard Gibbons is the award-winning author of Shelby 1923 (Biography.com: “Rocky in the Wild West”) and a member of the International Boxing Research Organization. THE ST. PAUL PHANTOM is the first of a planned Fight for Glory trilogy spanning 1884 to 1983.

Anglea Robinson
Director
Fifth Story Press
angelamareerobinson(at)gmail.com

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