Michael Carruth suffered another setback to his professional boxing career yesterday evening when he failed to make the weight for his light middleweight title fight against England's Adrian Stone.

When the two fighters arrived to weigh-in at the London venue at 4.00 p.m. Carruth was found to be two and a half pounds over the 11 stone limit. Returning at 6.00 p.m. having spent the intervening two hours in the steamroom, the 1992 Olympic champion still failed to make the weight.

The fight, which is scheduled to be screened live by Sky, will still go ahead tonight in Bethnal Green, but agonisingly for Carruth, he will not now be in a position to win the vacant International Boxing Organisation (IBO) title. Stone, who had little problems with weight, can claim the belt if he wins the bout.

At 32 Carruth has travelled a road which has not always taken him to the career heights he might have expected. Starting out again has been his mission for a number of years and tonight was an important opportunity to progress a career yearning to move forward.

After the disappointment of his fight against Spanish WBC champion Javier Castillejo being cancelled last month anything other than a win now would pressurise Carruth's future as a professional.

The Dublin fighter took the bout at short notice, not having fought since midway through last year which may go, in some small way, towards explaining what has turned out to be an embarrassing let-down.

He had three fights during the first six months of 1999, all of them won by knock-out.

All he can salvage now is pride and much will depend on the entertainment value afforded to Sky viewers, who can watch the fight live. Such is modern boxing that the fighters quality is only part of the whole package.

The bout will still expose Carruth to an international audience and against the hard-hitting Stone, he has an important opportunity to broaden his reputation.

"I know it 's not the WBC title tonight," he said before the weigh in. "But it's still a chance to get back into the limelight."

Now managed by Meath's Brian Peters, southpaw Carruth has twice been beaten in his professional career. He was out-pointed by Romanian Michael Loewe for the WBO crown in Germany in September 1997 and was also beaten by Scotland's Gordon Blair. But 12 of Carruth's 18 victories have ended inside the distance.

Stone, 28, has mainly fought in America, where his third-round stoppage of Michael Corleone at Long Island in January brought his tally to 25 wins (19 stoppages), against three losses and two draws.