There's a high chance he'll be forced to fight fringe contenders. My be at least Braehmer will step up...
You're right, he wisely chose not to fight Hopkins because that fight wouldn't have come off. Murat's mandatory status depended entirely on the visa issue, and once that was settled, Kovalev would've been locked out with no title shot at all. The Cleverly fight was his ticket to a belt. Now, if it weren't for the network issue, we could have a nice unification bout on our hands.
big if, Bernard knows he does not have to fight Kovalev so he acts like he wants to. Hell bernard is GBP managment, he knows that showtime will not put Kovalev on while he has a contract with HBO