How to Box as a Southpaw

Few boxers are southpaws, just as a smaller slice of the population are left-handed than right-handed. Decreasing the number of southpaws is the fact that fewer trainers know how to teach the southpaw boxing style, so they teach lefties to fight as right-handed, orthodox fighters instead. By following this guide, you can learn the basics of the southpaw boxing style.

Proper Stance
Southpaw boxing reverses the orthodox position, so place your right foot out in front. Otherwise, the stance is nearly identical to the orthodox boxing stance: feet shoulder-width apart or slightly wider, guard up, chin down. However, there are a pair of special considerations.

First, the southpaw stance puts the right fist in front. That means orthodox opponents will send their left jab straight down the pike and through your right mitt. If your right hand stays up, it neutralizes the left jab simply because it is there. Another aspect of the southpaw stance is that your liver is closer to the opponent and more of a target for body punches than is the case for orthodox fighters. This means using your left elbow to give your body a tight guard.

Footwork
The classic tactic for an orthodox fighter to counter the southpaw stance is to throw the straight right instead of the jab. Ergo, the most effective defense is to circle away from righties by moving to the right. This carries you away from the power of those straight rights. When you stop and punch, focus on foot placement.

Duels between southpaws and right-handers are very much about winning the battle of foot placement. If your right foot is outside their left foot, you have control of the fight. That position maximizes your powerful left hand while preventing the other guy from moving away to the left. Likewise, if the orthodox fighter gets his left foot on the outside, you cannot move the right without first stepping backwards, and until you do so you are standing squarely in the path of his straight right.

Advantages
Southpaws enjoy an advantage over orthodox fights in that both types of boxers spend most of their time fighting righties. A leftie is therefore very practiced in fighting a rightie, while most righties rarely fight lefties. Working on that footwork until it becomes second-nature, for example, means a southpaw is always lined up to pitch straight lefts down the pike. Add a right hook to that, a punch few righties are trained to look for since it comes from the wrong direction, and you have a devastating combo where something is likely to land.

Sources: personal experience; Championship Streetfighting