Charles has variety but throws mostly single shots, one of the biggest advantages to having diverse strike selection is the ability to put strikes together intelligently...Which Charles does not do. Beneil has an advantage of being a southpaw so he gets to strike into Islam's open side and where Islam likes to kicks from range and being inactive playing a counter heavy approach waiting on his opponents, which the short Volkanovski was forced to play into, Beneil won't. Also Volk did well defensively wrestling but he absolutely had to be conscious of that the entire time, two of the rounds he lost were from getting his back taken for an entire round...Beneil is an elite grappler, I seriously doubt Islam takes his back for entire rounds like he did Volk. On the inside if he hits Islam like Volk did, Islam might be getting finished. Benny hits hard.
I agree that Beneil has bad striking defense and Islam is accurate and good at countering but the flip side is also true, Islam doesn't move his head and if you force him to exchange he looks to immediately tie you up because in the pocket is where he got hit and dropped multiple times by Volk, he's not comfortable if you get inside of his range and defense at all. Beneil does if nothing else force exchanges and he has far superior defensive wrestling, takedown defense, scrambling and an anti wrestling guard than Oliveira will ever have. Islam isn't the heaviest hitter but Beneil really cannot afford to get rocked badly, which he might, just as Charles did by islam. Beneil has the height on par and reach on Islam without giving up size and he can kick from the outside viciously, Islam also isn't the best at checking kicks.
Beneil has a lot more than Charles did for Islam, I've always said this. I don't think it'll be enough but if Benny doesn't get chinned early coming forward I think he will give Islam a ton of trouble just as I thought Beneil would Khabib too. Biggest issue is cardio, Islam is a serious workhorse and bred to go the distance, Beneil has gotten tired in intense fights plenty of times.
