I feel like saunders was shook as fukk that whole fight too. He only started throwing after canelo took his foot off the gas. But for the most part he was just slapboxing too. But overall Plant averaged more power punches per round. One reason I feel like plant showed more heart is cause he actually stood in the pocket and traded counters with canelo at certain times. Which is something you rarely see. Even golovkin was reluctant to do that most of the time. And Billy Joe never did it. Plant took a lot of damage in those moments but I respect him for at least trying something different.
But the main reason I think plant showed more heart is cause Billy ended that fight quitting. We can talk about the eye all day but at the end of the day he still quit
.....and after plant got knocked down twice he was still trying to get up even though he had nothing left. If the ref let that fight continue one more time we all know plant woulda been put into a coma. So even though he was throwing pitty pats most of the fight, when the time came for him to fall on his sword it appeared to me he was ready to do so. So I gotta give him his respect
I gotta rewatch the fight again to make a final assessment but I think plant even surprised canelo with some of the shyt he did. And I think that's why canelo gave him his respect after the fight. Haven't seen canelo show that much respect to a fighter post fight in a long time. Most of the time he looks genuinely disgusted with his opponents
.....it takes a lot to get that type of praise from canelo.