Southpaw is a boxing term that designates the normal stance for a left-handed boxer.
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 mentioned by boxing historian Bert Sugar, the legendary 7 weight world champion Manny Pacquiao is considered to be the greatest southpaw boxer of all time.
The corresponding designation for a right-handed boxer i...
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Southpaw is a boxing term that designates the normal stance for a left-handed boxer.
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 mentioned by boxing historian Bert Sugar, the legendary 7 weight world champion Manny Pacquiao is considered to be the greatest southpaw boxer of all time.
The corresponding designation for a right-handed boxer is orthodox, and is generally a mirror-image of the southpaw stance.
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...
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