Orthodox boxers find few southpaws to spar with in the gym so when it comes time to face a southpaw one might be at a disadvantage. Even southpaws vs southpaws have this problem and can make bad fights. If one meets a cutie of a southpaw they can make you look bad if you do not take them out early.
In this writers memory for what it’s worth I can remember two southpaws that Cassius aka Muhammad Ali faced and had problems with.
The first one was in 1959 at the Pan American Trials in Clay’s hometown of Louisville, KY. He lost a split decision to Amos Johnson of the Marine Corps, from Medina, OH.
Having won the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament in the Heavyweight division Clay lost to Percy Price in the AAU tournament. Price would represent the USA at heavyweight and Clay at light heavyweight. Clay defeated Poland’s Zgbigniew Pietrzykowski for the Gold Medal in the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
If Clay had won and entered at heavyweight he would have possibly met Italy’s Franco De Piccoli a southpaw who won the Gold Medal at the Olympics. He would go onto win the EBU Title as a pro finishing with a 49-2-3 record.
Pertaining to Ali in the pro ranks on September 10, 1966 in Frankfurt, Germany he faced Germany’s southpaw Karl Mildenberger, 49-2-3, in his defense of his WBC and WBA titles. Ali would score a TKO in the 12th round at 1:30 of a scheduled 15 rounds.
One of the judges was Ring Magazine’s Nat Fleischer. Mildenberger was the first southpaw boxer to fight for a world heavyweight crown.
While Mildenberger’s unorthodox southpaw style caused Ali some discomfort in the early rounds of the bout, Ali won the fight through a technical knockout after the referee Teddy Waltham of the UK stopped the bout in the 12th round. This was the first time a sports event was broadcast via satellite through color telecast. There were 45,000 in attendance. It was the first time a German challenged for the world heavyweight title since Max Schmeling lost to Joe Louis 30 years prior.
A precise right hand to the head of Mildenberger is what first dropped the German before continued flurries of punches then bloodied his face further. However despite significant swelling and a nasty cut over his right eye, Mildenberger continued to chase the visitor around the ring and enjoyed a seven-round resurgence that ignited the crowd. The eighth round saw Mildenberger fall to the canvas once again, caught by a left hook that had him stunned. Ali began to assert an increased level of dominance, knocking the German down once more, causing the referee to call a halt to the fight.
On May 24, 1976 Ali defeated the British, British Empire and European champion southpaw Richard Dunn, 33-9, of the UK by TKO in the 5th round at 2:05 in Munich, Germany, in a WBC and WBA defense.