Tyson Fury hits Deontay Wilder in a heavyweight championship boxing match on Oct. 9, 2021, in Las Vegas. Chase Stevens/Associated Press

BOXING

Tyson Fury will defend his WBC heavyweight title against Dillian Whyte in the UK this spring after promoter Frank Warren won a purse bid for the bout.

Top Rank, Fury’s U.S.-based promoter, and Warren’s Queensberry Promotions announced the deal Friday, concluding months of drawn-out negotiations over the unbeaten Fury’s future. Warren is paying just over $41 million for the rights, according to WBC President Mauricio Sulaimán, making it the richest purse bid in boxing history.

Fury (31-0-1, 22 knockouts) took to his social media platforms to herald the deal for his first bout since his dramatic 11th-round knockout of Deontay Wilder last October in Las Vegas, completing their entertaining fight trilogy.

The date and location of the bout aren’t certain yet, but Fury’s announcement confirmed he and Whyte (28-2, 19 KOs) plan to meet in the spring somewhere in the UK. Fury is a Manchester native, while Whyte was born in Jamaica and moved to Britain as a child.

GOLF

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PGA: Will Zalatoris and Jason Day charged past Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas on Friday at Torrey Pines to share the third-round lead at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego.

Zalatoris posted the day’s best round with a 7-under 65, and two-time Farmers champion Day shot a 67. They were at 14 under heading to the final round of the tournament, which will finish Saturday to avoid a television conflict with the NFL’s two conference championship games.

Rahm and Aaron Rai were 13 under, and Thomas, Sungjae Im and Cameron Tringale were another shot back. There were 24 players within five shots of the co-leaders after an eventful moving day.

Zalatoris surged from six shots back after two rounds and moved into contention for his first career PGA Tour victory.

LPGA: Danielle Kang birdied her final two holes for a 4-under 68 to catch good friend Lydia Ko (70) in the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Raton, Florida.

Kang said she considers Ko to be her little sister. The two stand at 11-under 133 at the tournament’s midway point, four shots clear of U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso (70) and England’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff (69).

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Conditions were cooler, windier and tougher than they had been a day earlier in the LPGA’s first full-field event of the season. Ko, at 24 already a 16-time winner on the tour, considered her day to be a grind from start to finish. The rhythm to it was far different than a day earlier, when Ko had made nine birdies in an opening 63, one shot off the tournament record.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Chip-ins from Rory McIlroy and Tyrrell Hatton fueled their surge into contention at the Dubai Desert Classic on Friday and they will try to catch Justin Harding over the weekend.

McIlroy and Hatton took advantage of beautiful conditions at Emirates Golf Club to shoot 6-under 66s – tied for the lowest scores of the day – and climb onto the leaderboard in the $8 million Rolex Series event on the European tour. Harding shot 68 to move ahead outright on 11 under overall, finishing with a two-stroke lead.

SOCCER

TRANSFERS: Goalkeeper Matt Turner will be transferring from the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer’s to Arsenal, according to U.S. Coach Gregg Berhalter.

The 27-year-old got the shutout for the United States on Thursday night in a 1-0 win over El Salvador in a World Cup qualifier. He likely will stay with New England for the first part of the 2022 MLS season, then move during the summer transfer window ahead of the Gunners’ 2022-23 season.

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Turner was at first a basketball and baseball player at Saint Joseph Regional High School in Montvale, New Jersey, and started with soccer to stay in shape during the offseason.

The 6-foot-3 Turner played college soccer at Fairfield from 2012-15 and was overlooked in the 2016 MLS draft. He signed with the Revolution in March 2016 and was loaned to the third tier Richmond Kickers, who moved up to the second tier in 2017.

 Wolfsburg signed American winger Kevin Paredes from D.C. United for what the Major League Soccer team said was a $7.35 million transfer fee.

The German club said the 18-year-old Paredes signed a 3 1/2-year contract until the end of the 2025-26 season.

D.C. said the transfer fee is its record high for a sale. The deal includes additional money contingent on performance and a percentage of any future transfer fees.

• It’s taken five months but Juventus has finally found a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo.

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Coveted striker Dušan Vlahović completed a $80-million transfer from Fiorentina on Friday on his 22nd birthday and will wear the No. 7 shirt vacated by Ronaldo.

Juventus’ tweet announcing the move included the hashtag “DV7” –a take on Ronaldo’s “CR7.” Vlahović wore No. 9 for Fiorentina.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Manchester City defender Kyle Walker will miss round-of-16 games against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League after receiving a three-match European ban from UEFA.

UEFA said its disciplinary panel imposed the suspension for Walker’s red-card foul on Leipzig forward André Silva in a group-stage game in December.

The foul was “a very bad judgment,” the England international acknowledged this month, “a stupid error that a 31-year-old shouldn’t be making with the amount of games that I’ve played.”

HOCKEY

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QMJHL: The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League will resume activities Thursday following a weeks-long break because of COVID-19 complications.

The league said Friday that it plans to complete a full 68-game regular-season campaign, and that an adjusted schedule will be released Monday. It said capacity restrictions rinks will be determined by each province’s public health guidelines. The playoff format will be announced at a later date, but will start no later than May 5 and conclude no later than June 15.

The QMJHL has been on hiatus since Dec. 18. The league originally planned to restart Jan. 17, but changed its plans because there was no clear timeline of easing COVID-19 restrictions, particularly in Quebec where most of the teams are based.

AUTO RACING

RACE OF CHAMPIONS: Colton Herta will represent the United States in next weekend’s international Race of Champions as the replacement for injured driver Travis Pastrana.

Pastrana said this week he broke his back and hip in a BASE jumping accident.

Herta will take his place alongside seven-time NASCAR champion and current IndyCar driver Jimmie Johnson. The ROC “Snow + Ice” World Final will be held next weekend in Pite Havsbad, Sweden, on the frozen Baltic Sea, 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle.


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