Southpaw in "Philly Shell" Shoulder roll defense

The shoulder roll isnt effective for a southpaw vs orthodox matchup. With the shoulder roll, your left shoulder is supposed to block the right hand, and the right the left. Because a southpaws cross comes from a different angle, you cant roll the punch as effectively. THis is why Floyd adopted a high guard vs Judah, as Judah penetrated his shoulder roll early in the fight.

The only way for it too work effectively is if you square up.

 

It's harder to straight up block the rear hand of an opponent in the opposite stance. The right side of your body can also be exposed and that right hook can find its way. But that guy makes great videos and showed some cool tips. If you're good enough you can make it work if you're comfortable with it.

 

The real problem is that with the low lead, the left hook of a conventional fighter(which is almost always a conventional fighters best punch) has an extremely short distance to travel to land. The shoulder roll is dependent on elite reflexes already, but they'd have to be Roy Jones level to consistently roll the left hook.

 

mansour is the only 1 who comes close that i know who uses it

 

Rigo, Bute, Szpilka are some current examples of guys who use it quite sucessfully but they all have the same weakness which is keeping their right hand down while in the pocket since it leaves them open for left hooks. They've all been caught and hurt from that shot because of it in their careers.

Another thing is the Southpaw instructor in the video for all of his examples especially on the defense against the right cross is standing with his lead right foot inside the orthodox boxers lead left foot which is pretty misleading. Most lefties try to keep their lead foot on the outside as it is a more advantageous angle and shorter distance for them to land their left cross. It also keeps your opponents right cross further away as they have to reach across their body more and it keeps you outside their left hook. It also makes it easier to counter their right cross because if your lead foot is inside and you're at the angle hes using in the video you have to reset your feet and pivot before your can throw your own cross which he shows in the video.

 

Agreed, that maneuver is more an exception to the rule in terms of positioning that can be useful on the inside, but it's not something that can consistently give you success by itself over and over.

 

Especially if you're a counter puncher which most of the Southpaws who use that defense are. Toney is the one guy i can think of who consistantly showed the ability to successfully use his shoulder roll against Southpaws.

 

Good point. Have to watch more of Toney against southpaws, haven't seen too many. Hopkins employs a Philly Shell from time to time, but he was much more offensive against the best Southpaws he beat and set up his shots and counters that way.

 

I wonder why more people don't use the cross-armed foreman type defense.

 

I'v wondered why it died out in the last 15 years myself, Qawi, Holyfield, Foreman used it with great success. It does seem awkward transitioning from defense to offense with it especially with your lead arm as it telegraphes the hook a bit and is pretty weird to try and jab out of that crab arm position.

 

The transition to offense and defense is slow, but especially looking at the HW division I don't see how it isn't just what the doctor ordered for both Klits, especially Wlad or for any in-fighter.

Someone like Rios would definitely benefit from it.

 

boxers need to understand that this defense is not for everybody. You see fighters starting their careers getting knocked out and people like Berto getting beat trying out this style. Stick with a simple guard.

Take an example from one of the greatest fighters of all time, Muhammad Ali:

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And you're prone to uppercuts, only the strongest men seemed succesful with it.

Also it's better to dodge a punch than to block one.

 

I don't think that is a great example of a stock defense.