Since Hall of fame southpaws are rare, it would make sense that top level heavyweight southpaws are also rare. Until recently, one could hardly find a southpaw ring magazine ranked heavyweight, as they were converted often converted to orthodox. Yet, in this thread we are going to pick the a winner in an all Southpaw tournament. To qualify the fighter must use the Southpaw stance as his primary stance. The rules are there will be a 3 day poll, and the winner of that match advances. In the end the voters he will pick the winner. I will use this thread to update the results. There are two brackets. The contests in bracket one are as follows: Match one: Joe Hipp- The colorful American Indian heavyweight contender of the 1990's. fans might remember his war with Tommy Morrison. Hipp was tough with plenty of guts. His power was solid. Hipp's best win was likely over Alex Garcia. VS. Ruslan Chagaev. Chagaev was a two time world amateur champion, and WBA heavyweight champion. He had solid skills, good power, and a top level chin. This best wins were over valuev, Ruiz, and Virchis. He also beat fringe contender Skelton, and Drummond. While Chagaev was outclassed vs Klitschko, he is young enough to make some noise in the future. >>>Winner advances to meet the winner of Sanders vs Thompson. Match two: Corrie Sanders. .Sanders was a great athlete who possessed blazing fast hands, lots of power, some size and reasonable skills. Sanders signature win was an upset of current Ring Magazine champion, Wladimir Klitschko. Fans might remember his sea-saw war with Rhaman, who used that performance to meet Lewis and upset him. Sanders also put on a gutsy show vs Vitlai Klitschko. Sanders other notable wins are over former cruiser champions Al Cole and Bobby Czyz. He also beat fringe contenders in Sprott, B. Cooper, and Vlades. VS. Tony Thompson. Thompson was a tall fighter with a long reach. He used his defensive skills, work rate and durability to work into a world title shot. Thompson's best wins were over Bean, Guinn, Timor Ibragimov, and Krasniqui. >>>Winner meets to meet the winner of Hipp vs Chagaev. Bracket two. Micheal Morrer. Morrer is the lone lineal heavyweight southpaw champion in history. Moorer has an excellent signature win over Holyfield. Perhaps it is unfair to Morrer, but his best remember for losing to an older Foreman. Moorer has good speed, good skills, and good power. His main drawback was a suspect chin. Outside of Holyfield, his best wins were vs Bean, Botha, and Shcultz. VS. Sultan Ibragimov. Winner of the 2001 silver medal losing on points, but cutting and hurting the great Felix savon. Ibragimov posses great hand and foot speed, decent power, and could target the body or counter. He used his skills to easily out point Holyfield and Briggs in WBO title fights. He used his power to KO a much bigger Whitaker. Ibragimov's other notable wins were over fringe heavyweight contender Ahuyana, and former crusier weight champion Al Cole. >>Winner advances to meet the winner of Byrd vs Mildenberger Chris Byrd. Byrd was WBO and IBF champion, and ascended to being the #1 ring magazine ranked heavyweight. Byrd used skills, defense, durability to win. His best wins were over Tua, Holyfield, V. Klitschko, and Mccline and Williamson VS. Karl Mildenberger. Midlenberger is best known for taking a few rounds and frustrating a prime Ali before losing to Ali's physicality. His best wins are likely over Machen, Zech, and Rademacher. >>Winner advances to meet Morrer vs Ibragimov.
