Junior featherweight Yoruba Moreu Jnr’s decision to fight as a southpaw stems from advice he received from Johnny Tapia.

Moreu will make his professional debut against Ndira Spearman on Saturday at the Fairgrounds Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Moreu, a 20-year-old from Albuquerque, New Mexico, knew Tapia up until the time of the legendary fighter's passing in 2012. When he first entered the gym, Tapia told his father, Yoruba Moreu Snr, words that stuck with the Moreus.

“The reason he is a right-handed fighter who fights as a southpaw is, when he was five or six years old, Johnny Tapia would tell him to stay left-handed,” Moreu Snr told BoxingScene. “We just listened to what Johnny told us, because he had a good eye for talent.”

Not for nothing, Tapia – Albuquerque’s own – was also a three-division champion who was posthumously voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. You can imagine the impression he had a young local fighter just starting out. 

“I would always hit the bags, train and spar right-handed,” Moreu Jnr told BoxingScene. “Once Johnny saw me shadowboxing, he told me to be a southpaw. After he told me that, I just became a southpaw.”

Moreu wanted to turn professional in a six-round bout, bypassing the traditional four-round bouts many young fighters take. The reasoning was based on a mixture of his skill level and experience. But his original opponent, Weusi Johnson, was unable to make it to the fight, so Moreu will now face Spearman, 1-16, a 30-year-old from Lavergne, Tennessee, who has been stopped in 13 of his 16 losses.

“In the amateurs, I noticed he liked to take a few rounds to figure you out, and then he gets going,” Moreu Snr said of his son. “If he starts slow, we would have to go back to an amateur style in the fourth round. A six-round fight allows us enough time to complement what he does best.”

Moreu Jnr believes the professional game will allow him to show his true talents.

“Now that I have eight-ounce gloves on, I know my opponent will feel them,” he said. “I know they will make a difference.”

Moreu Snr agrees. He anticipates that his son will now get a chance to show new elements, and will begin reinventing himself as a pro.

“A lot of people in the amateurs know him as a slick southpaw,” Moreu Snr said. “In the last year, his power has started to develop, and it is devastating.

“He is knocking out pros in the gym with one punch. He isn’t trying to do it on purpose; it is just happening.”

Lucas Ketelle is the author of “Inside the Ropes of Boxing,” a guide for young fighters, a writer for BoxingScene and a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Find him on X at @BigDogLukie.