Hard to make any sense of this one. Pavlik can surely still make some money fighting soft touches, and Ward himself isn't a huge draw. Maybe the thinking is that Pavlik won't take any more damage than he would for equivalent paydays at the weight. The only other big fights for Kelly would be Froch or Kessler, maybe Chavez Jr.. All those guys would probably take as much out of him as Ward.

I don't think there was ever much hope of Kelly actually improving or growing into a legit title contender at 168 anyways, this is more of a step back for Ward than anything.