I have a feeling Andrade will school Benavidez

Ultimately I don't think Boo Boo will be able to. As talented and viciously effective as Benavidez is, I've seen him struggle against boxer-movers numerous times before, and whilst it's a style which causes him some issues, he invariably eventually catches up to them and when he does he breaks them down in ruthless fashion.

The same thing happened to Plant - he got ruthlessly broken down and beat up but he was able to navigate his way to the final bell by octopus grabbing Benavidez to death. Had the ref not allowed him to do so he would never have survived the onslaught.

I think Boo Boo is better than Plant but I'm not sure he's better than him at 168. How could I be considering Boo Boo has only fought once at this weight and that was against a D level and if I did watch that fight I can't have been paying close attention because I don't remember anything about it now.

I'm no fan of fighters who are just successful and effective because they have a super awkward, tricky and difficult style, like Okolie for instance who is just a giant octopus with really long arms who wraps them around you after throwing a shot to prevent you from countering or just before you lead to prevent you from landing it. Take away his size, length, excessive octopus grabbing and cheating and there's very little skill there and he's not even 50% as effective and 'good' as he is.

Whereas, conversely, Boo Boo is super tricky, awkward and very difficult to fight for different reasons, legal reasons, and he's also very skillful, especially the 154 version which is the best version of him, and once he gets into a rhythm he can be an absolute nightmare.

The problem for him is so can Benavidez when he gets into his rhythm and as soon as he starts landing with consistency with those fast and extremely spiteful combos of his he'll roll fight over you like a truck. Boo Boo is going to have to box the fight of his life to keep him off of him for all 12 rounds. If he can he deserves full credit for doing so because he's fighting by far the best fighter he's ever fought as a pro, in his third weight class, who is not only naturally bigger (a 175 pounder fighting at 168), skillful and powerful but also has very fast hands too.

 

Thanks brother Olu

 

How would Andrade winning have been good for boxing though? He's an inactive diva, with next to no momentum, with a style and personality that doesn't appeal to the general public, and who has little boxing ambition.

Conversely, David is surging, appeals to fans, is chomping at the bit for marquee fights and if he smashed Andrade it builds nicely to fights with Canelo, Bivol, Zurdo or Beterbiev.