Yeah there's no real heel here to help sell this thing, imo.
Ward's unique. I don't think guys like Crawford or Mayweather were "runners" necessarily, but they (like Ward) are guys who are very intelligent, figure fighters out, and then adapt and just out-land their opponent by a wide margin, while staying out of harm's way. Crawford has a little more power, Ward has a good inside game, and latter-day Floyd was even a cut above the other two in terms of defensive ability. It doesn't exactly generate the same interest that massive punchers do, but it's effective. And GGG's a massive puncher, but I think his box office draw is actually hurt by the fact that he delivers his power in such a fundamentally sound fashion, instead of swinging from his heels.
Really as a NoCal guy I'm too biased to really think about this one clearly. I think Ward has a slight edge, but no rational person would be surprised if Kovalev retains his belts.