1. Uysk 2. Sultan I. 3. Moorer 4. Byrd 5. Sanders My ranking is based off of which guys are think we're the best not necessarily accomplishment. I simply think Sultan was that good even though he had a really short career. Moorer being a two time champ and competing for a over a decade in the division has the resume ro be number one but I don't think he would beat Uysk. So interesting that we never had a southpaw heavyweight champion until the 90's. Another interesting topic is how many guys converted to conventional pre 1990's when southpaws couldn't get fights especially at heavyweight? I'm genuinely curious about that. Just think how many former champions never faced a southpaw. Holmes, Lewis, Louis etc. I know I am missing more but am to lazy to look it up.
Lewis fought one southpaw who was pretty mediocre. Louis and Holmes- not sure if they did. Holmes did face Nick Wells as an amateur and was stopped twice i believe. Holyfield and Foreman both have wins over a talented southpaw in Moorer. Fury has beaten a decent one in Wallin. Ali beat one or two decent ones. One reason why we didn't have a southpaw heavyweight champion was because southpaws were told to fight orthodox. I believe both Ruddock and Cooney were left handers fighting as orthodox fighters. Henry Cooper was also a southpaw Today you have Usyk and an up and coming guy like Jalalov. Plus you have a legit contender in Zhan Kossobutskiy and a good older veteran like Zhang. Guys like Wallin and McKean aren't world beaters but they are ok contenders. This is turning out to be the golden age of southpaws.
You're absolutely correct about Cooney, Cooper and Ruddock being converted. Makes sense since they both had killer left hands with Cooney's and Cooper's hook and Ruddock's left uppercut/hook. I'm sure there are more guys that converted I just can't think of them. All I know is I always hated fighting southpaws. So hard to get your jab going when your opponents lead hand is so close to your own lead hand. Footwork is all jacked as well. Always hated holding mitts for them as well. Jalalov is the goods. I think he is the next great heavyweight champion.
Usyk is nowhere near a great heavyweight. He's a great cruiserweight and overall a great boxer, but seems like he's not willing to prove himself as a heavy. Ok, this is about a southpaw one, but again - fighting one bag, one mid-level and one good champion doesn't make you great whatever the stance (or the category) is.
It's tough to say but most switched to conventional so they could get fights especially in Cooper's era. The irony is that a lot of conventional fighters switched to southpaw in the 80's and 90's. Winky Wright and even Michael Moorer switched to Southpaw and had very powerful right jabs.
The first question to ask, is have we missed a few old timers? For example there is some evidence that Jeffries could fight from a southpaw stance. He was definitely ambidextrous.
Moorer especially when he first moved up to heavyweight showed a great right uppercut as well like in the Cooper and Stewart fights.
Just found this interesting article. I never knew this about Corbett, Jeffries and Basilio. https://coxscorner.tripod.com/southpaws.html
Resume: 1. Usyk 2. Byrd 3. Moorer 4. Sanders 5. Chagaev H2H 1. Usyk 2. Ortiz 3. Sanders 4. Ibragimov 5. Byrd
Not Cooper. But Cooney and Ruddock? Likely would be world champs. With Cooney, he needed another year or two before facing Holmes. A southpaw Cooney would have a good shot at Holmes. Ruddock would have a good chance at beating Lewis as a southpaw too.
He might have been able to switch stances. Even Mike Tyson could look like a southpaw at times when throwing combinations. Fury can switch stances too. I think its more about guys who fought as southpaws most of the time.
