SouthPaw Boxers??

Question

Do Southpaw boxers have an advantage in boxing?

Will Pacquiao be where he is right now, if he was orthodox?

Answer 1

I like to fight southpaws especially when they move the wrong way and walk strait into my right hook or when they throw their left cross to slow and I slip it and hit them with my right cross. I also enjoy hitting them in the liver with my left hook.

Answer 2

the advantage is southpaws spar with orthodox fighters all the time and are used to it, orthodox boxers don't always get to spar southpaws and it throws them off, then again theres Bernard Hopkins hes fought eleven southpaws and beat them all

Answer 3

We would not be talking about this if he was orthodox. I have trained many pro fighters as well as amateurs. My Amateurs have almost 300 fights combined and we have honestly have only faced maybe 30 lefties. With my pro's we have 116 fights with 108 victories and we have only faced 1 lefty and luckily we were still victorias.

If you don't get enough sparring against lefties you are screwed because they are so odd. The fighter has to do every movement that was taught to come natural to him the opposite way. The lefties that I have trained including my son have made good orthodox fighters look bad when they spar and not because they are better but because its easy for orthodox fighters to make mistakes against lefties.

All of the Philippine fighters with the exception on Barnabe Conception & Ray Bautista are all right handed but have been taught to fight in a southpaw stance, and i mean all of them.. Its definitely an advantage.

Ask any pro fighter and ask them if they would fight a lefty? even with a couple of months of training once you are in the ring and you get cracked they will revert to what is more natural to them. There movement     i.e    footwork punches , everything has to be re-taught.

Lets see how many readers will respond who are actual pro boxer

Answer 4

If you ask me to fight a southpaw or an orthodox boxer, I will pick the orthodox without even thinking. Southpaw boxers have a slight advantage because they are used to fight orthodox fighters. I've fought several southpaws and you lose control a little. They are more complicated, and it takes you longer to figure them out.

Answer 5

None at all.

As an orthodox fighter finds a southpaw opponent's stance odd...the southpaw must be feeling the same way against his opponent.

The other's stance is like a mirror image of the other.

If Pacquiao is an orthodox fighter, packed with same speed, same tenacity and same fury and power on his right hand.....he'd still be where he is right now.

Answer 6

Southpaws!! AAargh!

let me tell you, i am an Amateur fighter and i HATE fighting Southpaws.  I'll tell you why.

1)  They stand on your front foot, taking away your concentration.

2)  you have to keep your front foot on the Outside of their front foot, otherwise your defence is useless, their jab comes past your front hand and you're wide open for a big left hand.

3) your jab is useless.  You cannot jab past their front hand.  you can only hit them with right hands (leaving you open to hooks) or Left hooks, leaving you wide open if you miss.

4) You slip punches to the wrong side.  As an orthodox, you learn to slip a jab to your right, however, doing this with a southpaw, means your head is teed up perfecty for a big straight left.  When you slip to the left, you're out of range for a hook or a jab and have to rely on a straight right to the body.

The best way to fight a southpaw (for me) is walk through their jab and, once inside, hit them hard as many times as possible.

Manny Pacquiao is an extremely talented boxer and one of the p4p best in the world.  i can guarentee he'd be where he is today if he was orthodox...or there-abouts.

Answer 7

It depends on the individual of course, but I think over all you do get a slight advantage if you are a southpaw against conventional boxers.  Conventional boxers just don't see a lot of southpaws, and the awkward stance throws them off sometime.  Once you reach the talent level of Manny Pacquiao the difference is pretty much irrelevant, but for most average level fighters, their is a slight advantage to being able to fight southpaw in my opinion.

Answer 8

Not really an advantage, but they make their opponents adjust their guard and their footwork.  It becomes an advantage if that southpaw's in the caliber of a Manny Pacquiao, who's both fast and strong and hits like a mule.

As to the second question, again, even if Manny were orthodox, if he has that kind of talent and physical qualities then he'll still be great.