I ask because I was watching the Whitaker fight recently, and noticed DLH switched southpaw a few times. When he was in southpaw seemed to be the only times in the fight where he was able to get Whitaker with his left hand (I'd say he got Whitaker solidly maybe 2-3 times flush on the head while in Orthodox with his left hook, and the rest were body shots or glancing/misses.) DLH's right hand, of course, was pretty underdeveloped back then, so even though he had more success reaching Whitaker with right hands, they didn't seem to faze him all that much. After watching that, I thought it would have been a good idea for DLH to incorporate stance-switching more often into his game, especially after he hooked up with Floyd Sr. and his right hand improved. I thought it would have made his offense harder to predict and kept opponents guessing and off-balance. But he didn't. He fought most of his later bouts in Orthodox-only mode from what I saw. What do you all think? Would it have been a good idea for DLH to have adopted stance switching as a tactic more often? Or more broadly speaking, how would his fortunes as a fighter have differed had he fought his entire career as a Southpaw? Would he be better or worse for it?
Not sure but Oscar was an actual Southpaw who switched to Orthodox to begin with. Even though his right hand got a little better he still had a pretty weak right. I think he switched to Orthodox for that very reason. He probably could have still made it to his level had he stayed a Southpaw in my opinion though.
I certainly think he would have been more successful against southpaws had he stayed southpaw. You need a good right hand against southpaws unless you are one yourself.
mayweather in general messed up DLH's natural boxing/punching style... all he needed to do was strengthen his natural ability, instead he is standing there rolling his shoulder when normally he would be dancing and looking for an opening and wham
I knew he was naturally left-handed, and it's interesting to hear that view. Personally, the only fight where he should have stayed in Orthodox 100% the whole time was against guys like Mosley who had a dangerous right hand. I think he could have had success switching it up too.
