Ward knows he will get battered. His so called skills, defence won't help him. He should man up, like BHop did, and face his fear.
fact is a lot of Ward's 'skills' won't work on Kovalev as he is the stronger man and will be the one roughing Ward up on the inside in saying that its a 50-50 fight imo
I hope Ward recognises that Kovalev is now his greatest rival in and near his weight division. With Kovalev unifying and beating a proven top level fighter, he can no longer use the excuse "so I beat Kovalev, then what". A win over an unbeaten Kovalev would be the best name on his resume as long as it's not at a catch weight. Ward needs to get back in the ring, he is being left behind and forgotten.
Ward will probably claim he has some disease or something and can no longer fight as an excuse to get out of it. I think it's better for Kovalev anyway as he would probably kill him when he tries to get all slick. Kovalev doesn't need another death in the ring. Boxing doesn't.
He seemed set to move to 175 post Dawson and if bad chad was still the leading light in the division you could bet your bottom dollar that'd he'd have moved up by now.