where are all the great southpaws?

Until very recently, they used to convert them. No one wanted to face a southpaw, so.......

 

They drowned them at birth up to the 1980s.

 

Marvin Hagler
Lew Tendler
Tiger Flowers
Young Corbett III
Pete Latzo
Freddie Miller
Flash Elorde
Lou Brouillard
Vincente Saldivar
Melio Bettina
Hector Camacho
Michael Nunn
Pernell Whitaker
Alan Minter
Manny Pacquiao

 

Michael Moorer?

 

Yes. Mine wasn't meant as a comprehensive list, just throwing some names of very good / great southpaws out there, most of whom were from decades before the 1980s. :good

There have been plenty of accomplished southpaws.

 

I just think there's a low number of southpaws that fight as pro so in turn, there's just not going to be many great ones.

In the heavyweight division alone, maybe over the past 20-30 years, you can count on one hand the number of high profile southpaws.

Moorer, Sanders, Ibragimov, Byrd and I think that's about it.

Oh and Tony Thompson.

 

Chagaev

 

We are seeing more southpaws in boxing today. I think society discouraged people from being left-handed in the past, and boxing trainers did the same for a fighters stance and lead hand.

A well balanced and mobile southpaw with skills still has some stylistic advantages in terms of defense vs. the jab, and countering from angles orthodox fighters are not used to.

 

Bert Lytell is another old-time southpaw of great repute.

 

I don't think they have any real advantages, because orthodox fighters can do all the same things that southpaws do. The only difference is the experience advantage.

 

How many prominent heavyweight southpaws have their been full stop? Probably explained in part by the residual bias against southpaws in boxing. Lefts handers would simply be taught to fight orthodox. I remember an old interview where Greg Page said he was converted from southpaw. Henry Cooper was another natural lefty who was converted to orthodox at a young age.

 

You will see fewer athletically gifted Southpaws now then you would have seen historically. This is due in no small part to boxings decline in popularity at the youth level and the increase in Financial and educational possible rewards in other sports relative to boxing. In baseball over one-third of pitchers are left handed , left-handers constitute approximately 11% of the general population. Overall left handers are over represented in relation to their right-handed counterparts.

 

Southpaws do enjoy a stylistic advantage. They are a pain in the ass , they do everything backwards. They should be rounded up and kept on a cold climate Island.