The Wall Street Journal - 22.02.2020 - 23.02.2020

A14| Saturday/Sunday, February 22 - 23, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

TYSON FURY THINKS HE

was robbed of a win the last

time he stepped into the box-

ing ring against Deontay

Wilder.

Fury landed more punches

than Wilder in nine of the 12

rounds during their December

2018 bout, but Wilder scored

two knockdowns. The fight

was ruled a split draw, leav-

ing both fighters unsatisfied.

“I’ve watched the fight

many, many times. Maybe 100

times,” Fury said during a re-

cent interview with The Wall

Street Journal. “I wouldn’t do

anything differently, but I’m

going to do [things] totally dif-

ferent in the second fight.”

On Saturday night in Las Ve-

gas, Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOs) and

Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs) square

off in a rematch that will add

clarity to the heavyweight divi-

sion, with a unification bout

against Anthony Joshua loom-

ing—possibly in 2021.

“The first fight was an

amazing fight. It was a very

controversial fight. We left

people confused about what

happened,” Wilder said. “This

is unfinished business.”

Fury, 31, won the IBF, WBA

and WBO heavyweight belts

in 2015 after upsetting long-

time champion Wladimir

Klitschko. But he vacated the

titles and left the sport for

2½ years due to drug addic-

tion and depression. Fury has

since rebuilt his life and box-

ing career and said he views

winning Wilder’s WBC belt as

the final piece of his title col-

lection. (Joshua currently

holds the three belts that

Fury vacated.)

Both Fury and Wilder said

Joshua would be in their fu-

ture plans, as Wilder puts it

for “legacy” and “history”

reasons, but they weren’t

looking past the task at hand.

(Saturday’s loser can also re-

quest a rematch.)

Although Fury is the rare

heavyweight who has the box-

ing skills of a smaller fighter,

he said he plans to go toe-to-

toe with the hard-punching

Wilder and not leave a deci-

sion in the hands of the

judges. “Wilder has one style.

He isn’t going to come out

dancing and moving like Mu-

hammad Ali. He’s not hard to

hit,” Fury said.

Wilder, 34, said he would

welcome Fury being more ag-

gressive in the rematch.

“That’ll benefit me more

than anything, him coming

full at me,” Wilder said.

“When you knock a person

down, you never forget that.

You never forget who did it to

you and how they did it. And

when you crawl back in the

ring [a second time] to relive

that moment all over again,

there has to be stress.”

Despite both fighters hyp-

ing a brawl, Hall of Fame

boxer Sugar Ray Leonard said

he expects Saturday’s bout to

be more strategic. “I don’t see

either guy being knocked

out,“ Leonard said. “Fury has

excellent boxing abilities and

a tremendous chin from the

way that he got up from the

two knockdowns in their pre-

vious fight. But in the end, I

think that Wilder is always in

shape and that he will use his

speed and power to get the

job done.”

The Premier League’s Dash for Fifth

Manchester City’s ban from the Champions League has breathed new life into a snooze of a season

SPORTS

Liverpool: 76 points (1st)

Mohamed Salah

Leicester City: 50 points (3rd)

Jamie Vardy

Chelsea: 41 points (4th)

Willian

Sheffield United: 39 points (6th)

Lys Mousset

Manchester United: 38 points (7th)

Anthony Martial

Wolves: 36 points (8th)

Raúl Jiménez

Everton: 36 points (9th)

Dominic Calvert-Lewin

REUTERS (3), ZUMA (6) PRESS, EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK (2)

Tottenham: 40 points (5th)

Dele Alli

Arsenal: 34 points (10th)

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

Deontay Wilder, left, and Tyson Fury will battle on Saturday.

ETIENNE LAURENT/SHUTTERSTOCK

“like a trophy.” But for one lucky

team, this one-time fifth-place

route into the most prestigious

tournament in soccer is much bet-

ter than that.

Instead of Thursday night trips

to the more obscure corners of the

Europa League, here come glitzy

Tuesday and Wednesday nights in

the Champions League. It’s like an

upgrade from a middle seat in

coach to sipping Champagne in 1A.

Except here the Champagne is a

significant financial bonus. A team

BYJIMCHAIRUSMI

Wilder, Fury Set for Rematch

Weather

Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W City Hi LoW Hi LoW

Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

Anchorage 25 8 sf 15 -2 s

Atlanta 56 34 s 58 44 pc

Austin 62 47 pc 65 57 c

Baltimore 54 28 s 57 33 s

Boise 48 29 s 54 32 pc

Boston 49 33 s 52 36 s

Burlington 37 23 pc 41 31 s

Charlotte 56 29 s 60 41 pc

Chicago 49 33 s 52 34 pc

Cleveland 45 31 s 50 38 s

Dallas 57 46 pc 61 50 t

Denver 5327pc 3421sn

Detroit 45 30 s 51 36 s

Honolulu 83 68 pc 83 67 pc

Houston 61 46 pc 67 61 c

Indianapolis 46 30 s 50 39 pc

Kansas City 54 37 pc 55 36 r

Las Vegas 59 46 r 68 48 s

Little Rock 53 39 pc 55 49 r

Los Angeles 63 52 sh 66 49 s

Miami 74 65 pc 76 66 pc

Milwaukee 43 32 s 47 32 pc

Minneapolis 39 23 s 40 20 s

Nashville 54 33 s 55 42 pc

New Orleans 59 47 s 67 57 pc

New York City 49 35 s 54 38 s

Oklahoma City 57 45 c 58 43 r

Omaha 57 27 s 54 27 c

Orlando 69 52 pc 76 56 s

Philadelphia 51 31 s 56 35 s

Phoenix 67 49 r 66 49 s

Pittsburgh 44 26 s 51 34 s

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St. Louis 54 36 s 55 43 r

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Sioux Falls 43 25 s 41 18 pc

Wash., D.C. 53 32 s 57 37 s

Amsterdam 53 43 r 51 39 r

Athens 51 45 sh 57 46 s

Baghdad 75 48 pc 73 51 pc

Bangkok 95 75 s 95 74 pc

Beijing 50 24 s 51 31 pc

Berlin 51 40 c 47 37 sh

Brussels 52 44 r 54 42 r

Buenos Aires 70 63 s 78 66 pc

Dubai 82 70 pc 85 70 pc

Dublin 46 39 r 45 39 sh

Edinburgh 42 34 r 44 33 pc

Frankfurt 54 46 c 56 40 r

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Havana 74 62 c 80 61 pc

Hong Kong 73 63 pc 72 64 s

Istanbul 48 38 c 50 42 s

Jakarta 86 77 t 87 76 t

Jerusalem 51 45 pc 53 44 pc

Johannesburg 77 60 t 63 50 c

London 55 45 r 57 43 r

Madrid 68 36 s 67 37 s

Manila 89 72 c 88 75 pc

Melbourne 71 56 s 86 63 s

Mexico City 79 51 pc 82 52 s

Milan 59 37 pc 61 43 pc

Moscow 39 32 pc 38 31 sn

Mumbai 92 77 pc 93 75 pc

Paris 56 50 c 58 48 c

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Riyadh 82 60 pc 88 67 pc

Rome 60 39 s 60 47 s

San Juan 87 72 s 86 73 t

Seoul 46 26 s 47 33 s

Shanghai 63 39 pc 60 50 pc

Singapore 87 77 pc 87 78 pc

Sydney 7368sh 7666c

Taipei City 73 62 r 73 65 pc

Tokyo 6247pc 5744s

Toronto 39 29 s 46 34 s

Vancouver 47 37 sh 47 36 r

Warsaw 47 39 c 46 34 sh

Zurich 56 40 pc 57 45 c

Today Tomorrow

U.S. Forecasts

International

City Hi LoW Hi LoW

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London

F

ew people have had a

bigger hand in making

the Premier League ex-

citing again than a for-

mer prime minister of

Belgium and a Portu-

guese prosecutor.

Until they intervened last week,

the rest of this season was set to

be a snooze. Liverpool sits 22

points clear at the top, ready to

clinch the title with roughly two

months to spare. And no one really

looks like shaking up the second-

or third-place teams either. That

leaves three of the four qualifying

spots for the Champions League al-

ready spoken for.

But on Feb. 14, the two bureau-

crats tossed a grenade into English

soccer. In their roles as chief inves-

tigator and lead judge for Euro-

pean soccer’s financial control

board, they found Manchester City

guilty of “serious breaches” of

UEFA rules on spending and

banned the club from European

competition for two years.

The upshot is that City’s Cham-

pions League berth will go to the

team that finishes fifth. And right

now, that could be nearly half the

teams in the league. Anyone from

Tottenham in fifth to Burnley in

11th is a candidate. The gap be-

tween them is only six points with

12 games to play.

“Now the fifth place is

not far,” said Tottenham

manager José Mourinho,

adding later that qualifying

for the Champions League

this year would be his great-

est achievement. “Arsenal,

Everton, Sheffield United,

Wolves. Everyone will feel

they have the chance.”

The mad scramble for Eu-

rope is precisely the juice

this season needed. For a

few big clubs who’ve fallen

on hard times, it’s a chance

to rescue disastrous cam-

paigns—we’re looking at you

Manchester United (seventh)

and Arsenal (tenth). And for

a handful of others, like

Sheffield United (sixth) and

Wolves (eighth), it’s an un-

expected opportunity to

reach the promised land of the

Champions League for the very

first time.

The race for fifth has also cre-

ated intrigue in every remaining

round of Premier League matches.

This weekend alone features two

matches where both sides are in

the running for European slots:

Chelsea vs. Tottenham and Arsenal

vs. Everton.

The significance of qualifying

for Europe can’t be overstated.

Former Arsenal manager Arsène

Wenger was derided for once say-

ing that fourth place, normally the

last Champions League berth, was

can normally count on earn-

ing at least $3.1 million from

the Europa League group

stage and up to $25 million

for reaching the final. The

simple act of showing up to

the Champions League next

season, having made it

through one qualifying

round, is worth at least

$16.5 million.

No horse in this race

would feel that windfall

more than Sheffield United.

Having just been promoted

from England’s second tier,

the low-budget club started

the season hoping above all

to avoid immediate relega-

tion. While reasonable, it

turns out that objective is

now somewhat dated. Shef-

field sits in sixth place, one

point behind Tottenham. Manager

Chris Wilder has had to change his

team talks.

“I can’t go into a team meeting

in half an hour and just say, ‘Let’s

be careful of staying out the bot-

tom three,’ ” he said.

The bigger clubs will tell you—

with a straight face—that they

need those European paychecks

even more.

Arsenal, for instance, was so

consistently in the Champions

League that the club built its

whole modern business model

around that guarantee. In fact, it

was written into the terms of a

bank loan the club needed to build

a stadium. The Gunners qualified

for the tournament in 20 consecu-

tive seasons under Wenger before

the streak ended in 2017. They ha-

ven’t been back since.

But even they have a chance

now, even if this turbulent season

has seen the Gunners become spe-

cialists in draws. Only four teams

in the league have managed fewer

than Arsenal’s seven wins, while

no one has more than the club’s 13

ties.

Yet somehow, even the Gunners

aren’t out of the running.

“A week ago, before we went to

Dubai, we drew Burnley and every-

thing felt very far away,” manager

Mikel Arteta said, referring to the

club’s midseason break in the

United Arab Emirates.

This is all contingent, of course,

on Manchester City’s suspension

surviving the club’s appeal to the

Court of Arbitration for Sport,

which should be settled by this

summer. City also needs to remain

in the top four until the end of the

season for this to matter—though

a total collapse at this point seems

less likely than very bald Pep Guar-

diola growing a man-bun.

The only team for whom this

entire discussion is academic is

City’s fiercest rival, Liverpool. The

defending champions of Europe are

above such concerns these days.

Liverpool clinched its Champi-

ons League spot last week.

BYJOSHUAROBINSON

José Mourinho’s Tottenham squad is

currently in fifth place in the EPL.

Manchester City: 54 points (2nd)

Sergio Agüero

(^88)