BoxRec

a pal asked me the question the other day and other than the obvious candidates, it was a harder question to answer than I would have envisaged.

Hagler
Whitaker
ummm Pacquiao
Calzaghe
Galaxy bro?

ummm. Saldivar

and who the eff else am I missing?

so, yeah, who are the great southpaws?

Zapata

ummmm. Flash Elorde

There's a fair few converted Southpaws too.

DLH, Hagler, Frazier, Cotto.

I think Cooney and Wharton were also converted, which would make sense because they could all hit with the left hook.

Galaxy is the most obvious, he was like a fiddler crab, all left hand.

so, when you're looking to name great southpaws, running out of names at 8 is about right?

Tim Austin was decent, nice skills and a big punch.

Hamed?

Ozzie Nazarov. Moorer. Marvin Johnson, JC Vasquez, Zaragoza.

Liles, Reggie Johnson, JD Jackson - All well schooled spaws.

Counter-puncher wrote:so, when you're looking to name great southpaws, running out of names at 8 is about right?

Yeah, I suppose "great" sort of limits it a little.

who was the little black american flyweight, he was quite good. jesus my memory, you know the guy i mean. Johnson? fvck.

Too Sharp Johnson. of course.

but he's, like, probably the 11th best southpaw i have ever seen. says quite a lot, that, albeit Too Sharp was good.

Counter-puncher wrote:who was the little black american flyweight, he was quite good. jesus my memory, you know the guy i mean. Johnson? fvck.

Too Sharp Johnson. He was skilled.

He's now a comish for the WBO.

I did a top 100 Southpaws of Alltime several yrs ago, it's on here somewhere.

Any list of great southpaws has to have Lew Tendler on it.

I'd say Winky Wright was pretty damn Great or close to it at his very best.

Yeah I'm having a hard time thinking of a bunch of great southpaws as well. I know there's definitely some we're leaving out though.

Um... Um... Kevin Kelley?

Cornelius Boza-Edwards?

Hector Camacho?

I know that last two are a bit dodge, like, but for the life of me I can't get beyond the ones you've said...

the slickest southpaw I ever saw and one of the best IMO was Kenny Lane. I watched him many times on TV and even saw him "in person" twice. he fought (and beat) the best of 50's and 60's.

Not "great," but a couple of southpaws whom I thought were decent and won belts were Bruno Arcari and Juan Martin Coggi.
Lots of lefties at the lower weights who were good, such as Horacio Accavallo, Hiroyuki Ebihara and the guy who I thought at the time was the best junior flyweight around, Yuko Gushiken

Hagler count?

Lane is a good shoutout. Forgotten fighter, but very tough and skilled. There are videos of him on Youtube fighting in his 50s (!) during a comeback he made in the 80s and even then he looked pretty good,

Others from older eras: Young Corbett III; excellent boxer.
Light heavyweight champion Melio Bettina
Light heavyweight contender slugger Irish Bob Murphy
Lightweight great Lew Tendler

dempseyfire wrote:Lane is a good shoutout. Forgotten fighter, but very tough and skilled. There are videos of him on Youtube fighting in his 50s (!) during a comeback he made in the 80s and even then he looked pretty good,

Others from older eras: Young Corbett III; excellent boxer.
Light heavyweight champion Melio Bettina
Light heavyweight contender slugger Irish Bob Murphy
Lightweight great Lew Tendler

82-16-2 with 19 KO's.

Just in case anyone else is intrigued by this thread to look up Kenny Lane like I was, that's his record.

He had 4 bouts in his 50's going 3-1 in them

De La Hoya immediately springs to mind for me.

Freddie Miller from the 30's probably has best record

some good calls, thanks gents