'Converted' fighters

Unless my viewing sample has been misrepresentative, most fighters at the olympics have been taught to fight in a 'converted' stance with their strong hand as lead. I include in that a fair few of the orthodox fighters (to my eyes). Is this a side effect of modern amateur equipment/scoring diminishing the importance of the KO threat, or do you think we're just seeing an arbitrary convention being overthrown?

Or am I talking pish?

 

No idea, there were a lot of southpaws, perhaps too many for all of them to be natural lefties.

Why bother converting?

Some of them did look awkward in their stance, a possible result of conversion, or just from being super scrubby.

 

I genuinely don't believe I saw a single fight without a southpaw and I saw dozens.

 

I can't fully explain the advantage, but obviously one thing it does is (just-about) eliminate the cross as a KO punch and relegate it to some sort of glorified set up/combo filler.

A disadvantage in traditional pro boxing, no major drag when KOs are impossible anyway.

 

It is easier to score with a lead hand, generally

Perhaps the idea is to put your best hand forward in order to take advantage of the absurd system and scoring of am boxing?

Unfortunately, this will continue and amplify the trends that are slowly destroying the professional game

 

It's certainly easier to score consecutive shots off the lead hand, so an emphasis on it lends itself more to combo punching, i guess. With the cross used more to keep an opponent guessing and reshift weight back to the lead side

 

Hut Hut Sounds off.......

.......http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=f6DzVfjYo9k#t=3665s

 

Hut Hut Sounds off some more ::

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=f6DzVfjYo9k#t=3817s

 

Hut Hut concludes his assessment of southpaws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=f6DzVfjYo9k#t=4131s

 

A few fighters have had a good deal of success doing this in the pros. You'll never see an ATG fighter fight like this though, because all of them are effectively one handed fighters.

 

Oscar is the only fighter I can think of that I know is "converted". And he had a pretty fucking good career ::

 

A good career, not a great one. Winky was a converted southpaw. Hagler was one, sort of (he was ambidextrous, really)

 

Michael Moorer

 

It just continues the trend started with fighters carrying more and more weight on their front foot over the last 20 years. The rear hand power punch is going the way of the human tail at the amateur level & it's left to guys like Roach & Steward to trouble shoot when these guys are world class pros. Soon all rightys will fight southpaw and train to look like this

 

We're doomed I tells ya! DOOOMED!

 

no, the sport has never been more awesome. You are just being jingoistic

all of the Germans and Russians fight like Harold Johnson

 

Well, they fight like Willie Pastrano at least. opcorn:

 

he deserved to lose that fight, ran away the whole fight

 

Some of the Brazilian, Japanese and Central Asian dudes look very good, like they might have promise.

 

i hope so. We are in desperate need of skillful pros.

If the downfall of Leap Amateurism comes from Mars, I'd be happy.

 

The Japanese don't strike me as being into it much, too much "honour" or something.

 

too bad

I wouldn't mind another Fighting Harada coming down the pike

 

No...too much honour to leap and run off.

"Murata San Has Shamed Us With His Leap Amateurism"




Wasn't one of the Brazilians called "Yamaguchi" :dunno: ::

 

A Jap would rather cut off his own tongue than be a leap amateur.

They are proud and noble people, and they love boxing.

 

well, where are they, then?

for fuck's sake, MAS HARADA

 

Cotto is a converted boxer and has done well.

 

When i read the thread title i thought this was about apostates. Never mind.

 

I can't prove it in this olympics since they took away the transparency, but anyone who has watched amateur boxing in the previous 20 years knows that the majority of scoring is done by the power hand, not the lead hand.

In other words, you're full of shit. As usual.

 

Yup, but being one handed has been a real hindrance.