body blow 
noun
1A heavy punch to the body.At the time what I relished even more was the implicit invitation to return body blow for body blow....
- The fragile tops of them were knocked down by the body blow from the creature, sending them crashing to the ground.
- He brought his hands up as an instinctive reaction, just in time for her to deliver a left body blow that took him right off his feet and flying back into the corridor wall.
1.1Something that causes problems or severe disappointment; a setback: a tax on books would be a body blow for education...
- The winners suffered a severe body blow early in the second-half when effective midfielder Brian Óg Murphy was sent to the line, but as so often happens, this served to galvanise the winners' resistance.
- Leitrim may have entered the arena from the underdogs corner but they soon had landed a severe body blow to the champions.
- Clearly, the global financial system has experienced a severe body blow, and must now be considered acutely vulnerable.