What are the stylistics of a typical Southpaw?

I often hear and read about the dreaded Southpaws...

Apparently, Lefty's should be drowned at birth ??? :D

But seriously. I'm very much into looking at how styles make fights and how the smallest of manoeuvre or habit of repetition can give any particular fighter the advantage over another evenly matched opponent.

With southpaws however, I'm left feeling like I'm missing something.
I don't box. Never have, never will. So unfortunately i can never gain 1st hand experience of this apparent conundrum.

Appart from the obvious lack of familiarity that comes with facing a southpaw. I could never figure out WHY certain things were given as fact for example:

• an Orthdox Rear Hand is a key pucnh against a Southpaw

Why is this ???

But more than that... Really what is a Southpaw all about?
What works for them and what works against them?

When you have a righty vs. a righty. The punches will shoot from opposite sides and the lead foot is on opposite sides. On the face of a clock. If 6 were to represent one boxers head and 12 were to represent the head of his opponent. The jabs from the boxer on the bottom would be like drawing a line from 8 toward 12 and from the boxer on top, a line from 2 toward 6.

You want to keep your opponent at the end of your punches and step into your jab to get that pop. This is where the lead foot comes in as you will be shooting your jab out over your lead foot. Now if your fighting a southpaw, his lead foot and jab are now on the same side of the center line (imaginary line between 12 and 6) as yours are. This can sometimes double the distance between you and your target if both of you are blading your bodies (to avoid squaring up) and extending their lead foot to shoot the jab and find your range. This why many times the feet get tangled up between an ortho and a southpaw. Stepping on the lead foot causes a lot of slips that often times can get mistaken for knockdowns. The general rule is to get your lead foot outside your opponents for better balance (avoid stepping on his foot or him stepping on yours), movement (your able to land your powerpunches and circle away from his powerhand--which means he has to punch across his own body to land anything) and placement of your powershots (you line your powershots up by stepping to your left and getting your rear shoulder closer to the centerline and lined up with his head.) Which is why Ortho's choose to use the right hand lead against southpaws. The jab is many times taken out of the equation in these fights because you have to Jab over your opponents jab. So you line the right hand up because its long, lands with impact and you can line it up with your opponents head. (Jones Jr. also claimed to like that right hand because the motion of the punch naturally carries you out of the way of your opponents punch (to the outside). He uses pretty effectively here against Richard Hall in the first round: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZJ3df37Z-w

*The right hand lead is uses to all that pivoting, hooking and flailing in the pocket that can result in a clash of heads many times when and ortho fights a southpaw.

Southpaws often benefit from the fact that their opponents are puzzled because of the stance and not seeing where the punches are coming from. When a righty fights a righty, the powerhand (right in most instances is always fairly visable and you can see when the punches are coming --(why many fighters use the jab to set up-- serves as a range finder and a distraction). When youre fighting a southpaw, and his bodys turned and your bodys turned, his power hand is hidden across his body. So fast southpaws can often hit with hard powershots that you only get half notice on, because you wont see the shot till it comes across his body. By then it's already halfway there. (Zab Judah?). Converted southpaws often have a hard jab and lead hooks because they're naturally right handed and its their lead hand. Guys that constantly switch up (Witter?) often capitalize on stylistic confusion also. Hope this helps.

When you have a righty vs. a righty. The punches will shoot from opposite sides and the lead foot is on opposite sides. On the face of a clock. If 6 were to represent one boxers head and 12 were to represent the head of his opponent. The jabs from the boxer on the bottom would be like drawing a line from 8 toward 12 and from the boxer on top, a line from 2 toward 6.

You want to keep your opponent at the end of your punches and step into your jab to get that pop. This is where the lead foot comes in as you will be shooting your jab out over your lead foot. Now if your fighting a southpaw, his lead foot and jab are now on the same side of the center line (imaginary line between 12 and 6) as yours are. This can sometimes double the distance between you and your target if both of you are blading your bodies (to avoid squaring up) and extending their lead foot to shoot the jab and find your range. This why many times the feet get tangled up between an ortho and a southpaw. Stepping on the lead foot causes a lot of slips that often times can get mistaken for knockdowns. The general rule is to get your lead foot outside your opponents for better balance (avoid stepping on his foot or him stepping on yours), movement (your able to land your powerpunches and circle away from his powerhand--which means he has to punch across his own body to land anything) and placement of your powershots (you line your powershots up by stepping to your left and getting your rear shoulder closer to the centerline and lined up with his head.) Which is why Ortho's choose to use the right hand lead against southpaws. The jab is many times taken out of the equation in these fights because you have to Jab over your opponents jab. So you line the right hand up because its long, lands with impact and you can line it up with your opponents head. (Jones Jr. also claimed to like that right hand because the motion of the punch naturally carries you out of the way of your opponents punch (to the outside). He uses pretty effectively here against Richard Hall in the first round: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZJ3df37Z-w

*The right hand lead is uses to all that pivoting, hooking and flailing in the pocket that can result in a clash of heads many times when and ortho fights a southpaw.

Southpaws often benefit from the fact that their opponents are puzzled because of the stance and not seeing where the punches are coming from. When a righty fights a righty, the powerhand (right in most instances is always fairly visable and you can see when the punches are coming --(why many fighters use the jab to set up-- serves as a range finder and a distraction). When youre fighting a southpaw, and his bodys turned and your bodys turned, his power hand is hidden across his body. So fast southpaws can often hit with hard powershots that you only get half notice on, because you wont see the shot till it comes across his body. By then it's already halfway there. (Zab Judah?). Converted southpaws often have a hard jab and lead hooks because they're naturally right handed and its their lead hand. Guys that constantly switch up (Witter?) often capitalize on stylistic confusion also. Hope this helps.

Southpaws obviously favor the cross for aformentioned reasons, but as for a general question of what is the style of southpaws, well it used to be that southpaws were known purely as boxers who stayed away and tried to time their cross, but as there have been more and more southpaws coming onto the seen we have seen everything.

Pacquiao, Wright, Dawson, Calzaghe, RIgondeaux, Casamayor, Juan Manuel Lopez, Judah, Whitaker all have unique styles. If anything being a modern day southpaw means that you don't really fight like anyone else. There are almost as many top end Southpaws as there are orthodox these days.