Why did Ward retire and not take on Adonis Stevenson?

[club fighter]

I'm not the biggest Ward fan, and although I felt the first fight with Kov was a scam, I have no doubt that (low blows or not) he was going to stop Kov in the 2nd bout after that devastating shot to the head he landed. A clear win for Ward IMHO. So I'm not a fan but not an outright Ward basher.

...but why has there been so little talk of unification of the LHW division against Adonis Stevenson before this and now retirement?

Just about any fighter I've seen through history win most of the belts starts talking about unification, but this?

[DuckAdonis]

Stevenson doesnt want to fight Ward

[Bjl12]

Adonis doesn't fight opponents with a pulse.

He would never had fought Ward.

[iamboxing]

This needs to be nipped in the bud before it becomes fodder his detractors can use against him. Adonis didn't want anything to do with Ward.

[Dean_Razorback]

i don't know honestly, he would have beaten stevenson without problems and with no controversies unlike his fights kovalev. would have made a lot of money too. but who cares, dude is gone. thanks god

[Rudiamonds]

Because Adonis doesn't want to fight anyone he duck kolv smith pascal Alvarez and jack he would never fought Ward

[RussB23]

Stevenson ducked kovalev for years, might have ducked ward. I think ward is just done, he said on first take today his body is breaking down and he lost the desire. He already beat kovalev i dont think he cares about stevenson.

[jmrf4435]

REALLY?????. Adonis stevenson has absolutely no plans to take on a legit contender.

Do you not follow his career? He would happily fight fonfara 4 times if he could.

Adonis is irrelevant...

[Evil_Meat]

Stevenson definitely wants/wanted to fight Ward but obviously the keyboard warriors will be saying otherwise. I don't think Ward retired to avoid Stevenson either. People have always been so quick to rip on Stevenson yet Kovalev hadn't fought anyone relevant until the Ward fight, yet he gets a pass.

[Madison Boxing]

ward never wanted to fight stevenson. That would have been a way to end a career, a LHW unification against stevenson and people know its going to be wards last fight. I think that would have done decent figures tbh. However theres a good chance ward would end his career with a loss and he knows it. I dont like stevenson and the things hes done in his life are unforgivable, but he knows how to fight and wards showed zero interest in ever fighting him.