I was thinking of this comparison myself. I don't dislike Wlad, but rather I would like to see a competitive fight for the HW belt and Wlad just doesn't allow that to happen. Chagaev was so frustrating to watch fight because he at times had Wlad right were he needed him. Wlad allowed Chagaev to get in the pocket, inside of his jab and hooks but Chagaev doesn't have the mentality to fight at that distance. To me it's fairly evident that if you use good head movement and get inside of Wlad, and then not allow him to grab a hold of you, then you have a good chance of busting him up. You have to get rough on the inside and not just give into Wlad's big bear hug. Similar to what Ward was doing last night. Hold and hit. Go to the body. Rip uppercuts. The thing is though is that there just aren't any skilled inside fighters at HW these days. And I mean NONE.
Look at the Andrade fight Kessler can fight on the backfoot The problem for Kessler is that he can't fight this dirty inside fight with hitting and holding he need some Hopkins lesson's there. Call me stupid but i think against Froch Ward would have more problems