The debate around orthodox vs southpaw is something that will continue to go on for years within combat sports, a discussion point many people will have had.
But why is it that southpaw fighters give everyone problems, and are so hard to match up against?
While I’m not going to put the argument to bed, I’m not sure anyone can, I will try and help you understand it a little more here.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
It is believed that approximately 10% of the population around the world are left handed. Yet when you look at the number of southpaw fighters, this figure is way higher as they make up around 20% of professional MMA fighters.
A study in 2013 backed this up. The analysis of 1468 MMA fighters found this overrepresentation, but not only that, also found that southpaws were accumulating more fights in their career on average when compared to orthodox fighters.
They’re not just coming into the sport at a higher rate than expected, but they’re also staying longer.
Another study from the University of Manchester found something else very interesting. They took nearly 10,000 boxers and MMA fighters, randomly selecting one from each category to go head to head in a test around wins.
It was found that the southpaw would outperform the orthodox in this test to around 53-54%. Very minor, but another stat in the favour of southpaws.
It’s not just MMA either. Look elsewhere, in sports such as boxing, wrestling, judo, karate and taekwondo and you’ll see a similar pattern. Go to non-combat sports, and there is no pattern, which suggests this is something limited to one on one fighting.
The Combat Press February 2026 MMA rankings show that both Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway are in the top five, that’s 40% of the top five being southpaw.
Is it Simply about Exposure?
Orthodox fighters make up a large percentage of the fighting population, so is this just really a case of exposure?
Regardless of the level, a southpaw will spend most of their career training and fighting orthodox fighters, because there are more of them.
Compare that to an orthodox fighter, who could go months without training or fighting a southpaw, unless they particularly sounded out an opponent for this reason.
By the time two men step into the ring together, the southpaw will have a huge back catalog of orthodox opponents to work from, the orthodox would have a much smaller sample size of southpaws.
It’s a dynamic that’s even reflected on sports betting sites, where southpaw matchups regularly produce odds that don’t fully account for the stance disadvantage.
How Can Coaches Solve the Problem?
In the build up to fighting a southpaw, the first job a coach will do is go out and find a useful southpaw sparring partner.
Depending on the name, and gym he’s from, this might mean flying someone in specifically to do this job, such is the importance of it.
There are two ways fighters then try to fix this. Firstly, getting as many rounds in against southpaw fighters as they possibly can in the build up.
Secondly, not as common, but some fighters now look to switch stance in the build up, and fight as a southpaw themselves. This is designed to see the fight from the stance of their opposition, to try and feel where the potential weak spots could be.
However, there can only be so much done in a fight camp. Those six or eight weeks will be very useful, but is it anything, compared to the lifetime of training a southpaw has on the matchup against an orthodox?