Southpaw is a boxing term that designates the normal stance for a left-handed boxer.
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Description
A boxer in the southpaw stance would have his right hand and right foot forward, leading with right jabs, and following with a left cross right hook. As stated by boxing historian Bert Sugar, the legendary 7 weight world champion Manny Pacquiao is considered to be the greatest southpaw boxer of all time but there are many other prominent boxers who use southpaw stance and are world champions.
Alternatives
The corresponding designation for a right-handed boxer is orthodox, and is generally a mirror-image of the southpaw stance.
Strategy
Left-handed boxers are usually (but not always) taught to fight in a southpaw stance. This may give the left-handed fighter a strategic advantage because of the tactical and cognitive difficulties of coping with a fighter who moves in a mirror-reverse of the norm. However, some left-handed fighters are brought up fighting in the orthodox stance because of a widespread perception that boxing from an atypical stance (or attempting to learn to do so) would be a disadvantage to the fighter.
A skilled right-hander, such as Roy Jones Jr. or Marvin Hagler, may switch to the left-handed (southpaw) stance to take advantage of the fact that most fighters lack experience against lefties. In addition, a right-hander in southpaw with a powerful left cross obtains an explosive new combination. The converted southpaw may use a right jab followed by a left cross, with the intention of making the opponent slip to the outside of his left side. Then the converted right-hander can simply turn his body left and face his opponent, placing him in orthodox, and follow up with an unexpected right cross. If the southpaw fighter is right-hand dominant with a strong left cross, this puts the opponent in danger of knockout from each punch in the combination, as jabs with the power hand can stun or KO in heavier weight classes.
However, the reverse is not true of left-handers; it's generally accepted that there is no strategic advantage in switching from southpaw to the orthodox because opposing fighters are accustomed to facing right-handers. In mixed martial arts this may not apply, as having the more coordinated hand forward provides more coordination for blocking and grappling. A weakness of this strategy is that when facing disciplines like Muay Thai, which focuses on attacking the lead side - a person with their dominant arm and leg forward risks having his best weapons neutralized.
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