There's little chance Peter Quillin purposely missed weight for tonight's now non-title fight with Andy Lee - and the Chicagoan's late charge to get under 160Ibs should favour the Limerick man in New York City.
That's according to boxing writer Eric Raskin, who joined Adrian on Off The Ball this afternoon to discuss Kid Chocolate's weigh-in fiasco ahead of the bout at the Barclays Centre.
"It doesn't feel to me like a case of him missing weight intentionally ... it just seems a case of not being properly prepared," Eric told Adrian.
"The odd thing which I think may have contributed to this - he was doing media rounds the day of the weigh-in. The Today Show - Peter Quillin and Sugar Ray Leonard were on that show together.
"In general he had some distraction and other responsibilities the day of the weigh-in, which I think is clearly a mistake."
Unbeaten Quillin, of course, is no stranger to pre-fight controversy. Last October he announced he was dropping his WBO middleweight title and declining a career-high $1.4 million purse to defend against Matt Korobov.
The reason behind the bizarre decision is widely assumed to be the influence of Quillin's adviser, Al Haymon, who allegedly had a long-running rift with the fight's promoter, Jay Z.
"This is a guy who's really done damage to his reputation in the last 18 months," Eric continued. "The more bizarre thing that did more damage to his reputation when he had that $1.4m payday on the table ... very winnable fight... and because the purse bid was won by Jay Z.
"In terms of mismanaging your career, it's hard to do it in any more extreme manner than Quillin has the last few months."
A message to my fans... pic.twitter.com/gkD7OHk5aK
— Peter Quillin (@KIDCHOCOLATE) April 10, 2015
Eric added: "In theory this should only be good news for Andy Lee and his fans ... You have to assume [Quillin] drained himself that much more (trying to make weight).
"I was viewing Lee as an live underdog anyway prior to the weigh-in fiasco but I think his chances just ticked up even that much more. I don't think the fact that Andy's title is not on the line is going to change it.
"Quillin still has his undefeated record to think about."
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