St. Paul Boxing: The Gibbons Brothers, O'Dowd, Miske

Malone was a terrific fighter. He was a hair away from fighting Greb for the title and was at least partially recognized as a champion during the Wilson era when Downey was robbed of a KO over Wilson and the Ohio Commission (and several others) recognized Downey as champ. Malone only lacked size. That was his biggest problem. Very interesting guy.

Mike Gibbons was basically the father of the St. Paul style. Early on he had been a wrestler but came under the wing of George Barton who was a fighter, referee, teacher, boxing writer etc. (One of the most important individuals in upper midwest boxing history and universally respected). Barton schooled Mike early on but Mike was for the most part self taught in that he was so analytical and always trying to improve upon the economy of movement.

The style centered around the basical principle that you make them miss and make them pay but it was a lot more than that. St. Paul fighters, or rather fighters who fought in the St. Paul style (because not all twin cities fighters fought in that style: Mike O'Dowd being one) typically combined excellent footwork and balance with great upperbody movement to make opponents miss and over reach their target. This resulted in the opponent being off balance and wide open for counters. This was combined with precision punching that would open holes in the defense for combinations. In modern times Harry Kid Matthews (trained by Jack Hurley who was a great proponent of the St. Paul style) and Lee Savold used the St. Paul style. Matthews fight with Bob Murphy is an excellent example of this and there is even a copy of this fight where W. C. Heinz narrates and gives an excellent illustration of the tactics and moves used by the style.

The Twin Cities had a ton of great fighters in the first quarter or third of the twentieth century but not all of them fought in the St. Paul style. Regardless they almost all considered Mike Gibbons as the founder of that excellent boxing colony and the man who did the most to make it what it was for all those years. It was enormously important and influential.