On a gray, occasionally rainy day in Chicagoland, the atmosphere inside the Virgin Hotel was convivial, filled with bright, coordinated T-shirts of fighter’s teams, brighter matching tracksuits and the brightest of all: Erislandy Lara’s underpants.
Erislandy Lara and Delvin Rodriguez are set to throw down Friday night in Chicago. (Lucas Noonan/Premier Boxing Champions)
The Cuban southpaw strolled up in bright, lime green when he stepped on the scale and registered 153.6 pounds. It’s been a couple of gray days for “The American Dream,” who threw out the first pitch from a damp mound at U.S. Cellular Field before Wednesday night’s White Sox-Astros game—a borderline pitch up in the zone, but when your batterymate is the Sox giant, 6-foot-6 pitching ace Chris Sale, the target sits high.
All the precipitation during the week was appropriate, though, as Lara tries to rain all over opponent Delvin Rodriguez’s parade Friday night at the UIC Pavilion. Rodriguez weighed in at 153.4, both of them comfortably under the 154 limit.
In the co-main event, Artur Beterbiev was 175 pounds even while foe Alexander Johnson was a svelte 174.2.
Both fights will air on Spike TV at 9 p.m. ET/PT. For viewers in Great Britain, Spike UK will air the brawls at 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
To follow along with all things Lara vs Rodriguez and Beterbiev vs Johnson, make sure to stay up-to-date on our fight pages.
