At that particular time, I was willing to give Atlas the benefit of the doubt. But not now.

That's because I've taken the grand tour through Muriqi's roster of opponents. Let me share some of these Showdowns in Dodge City:

On March 26, 1999, Muriqi, in his fifth pro fight, scored a one-round knockout over ERIC RHINEHART, a fighter who was three months shy of his 40th birthday. Rhinehart had been winless for the previous five years and four months, losing SIXTEEN fights in a row - twelve of those by knockout. After getting starched by Muriqi, he has since compiled a 2-18 record, bring his overall total to 14-52-1.

Two fights later, in May of '99, Muriqi posted another one-round knockout - this time over someone named MARVIN LADSON. Ladson, who was about to turn 42 years of age, had lost TWENTY-ONE fights in a row - and 16 by knockout - over a period of seven years before facing Muriqi, and had emerged victorious in just THREE of his last 48 fights, stretching back to April of 1987. At last glance, his record was 12-66-2.

Muriqi's ninth and 12th pro fights - both decision wins - were against ANGELO SIMPSON, who, after getting off to a 5-2 start as a pro, was just 6-16-1 going into his first fight with Atlas' guy. Simpson has now gone 0-26-2 over his last 28 fights, bringing his running total (he's still active) to 6-34-2.

STEVE USSERY had been knocked out in all four of his pro fights, lasting a total of just five rounds, when he stepped in with Muriqi in August of 1999, in Portsmouth, Virginia. You can guess the result of that fight - Ussery once again went down and out in one round. Since that fight, Ussery has won just one out of 13 fights. His record now is 1-17, with 16 KO losses - 13 of those losses in the first round, and three in the second.

In November of 1999, Muriqi won a six-round decision over FERMIN CHIRINO, who actually used to be a pretty decent fighter. Chirino began his career with a 9-2-1 record, and at one time held the Venezuelan middleweight title. But he had lost 17 of his last 18 bouts going into the bout with Muriqi, and at the time of the fight, he had just one pro victory in the previous 8-1/2 years. Chirino's pro mark: 13-25-2.

In his 15th pro fight, and apparently looking for another soft touch after Muriqi had suffered his first pro loss, Atlas had his fighter in with ADRIAN MILLER, a fighter who may or not have ever had gloves on, other than for his all-too-brief ring appearances. Muriqi knocked Miller out in one round, which was no surprise - Miller's six pro fights have all resulted in KO losses, with only one of them going as far as the second round.

ERIN FITCHETT was perhaps only marginally better than Stepin Fetchit. He came into a January 2002 bout with the 20-1 Muriqi with a record of 7-3-4. But he hadn't won a fight in over two years. And the composite record of the fighters he had beaten was 16-130-1. Muriqi won the fight on a fifth-round disqualification.

On April 23, 2002, Muriqi chalked up another one-round knockout, this time over a fighter named MIKE COKER in New York. With nine wins, four losses and two draws, Coker, in fact, did not have such a horrible record. But for some reason, Muriqi's connections, including Atlas, felt it would be appropriate for a rematch to take place. It did, nine months later, at the Mohegan Sun Casino. Naturally, Muriqi knocked Coker out in the first round again. It is obvious that Coker is not nearly as "good" as his record indicated - ironically, one of his losses was a one-round KO defeat at the hands of the aforementioned Eric Rhinehart, thus providing Rhinehart with one of his two wins in the past ten years.

On March 19 of this year, Muriqi registered a third-round stoppage of TIWON TAYLOR, a fighter who came into the fight with a generally salable record (24-8-1, 18 KO's). But that resume had been artificially built up against a collection of has-beens and stiffs - people like Andre Crowder (6-39-3 at the time), Jack Jackson (0-16), Mario Hereford (currently 0-20), Danny Wofford (15-54-2), and Dwayne Smith (7-39-3) were among his "victims". How proficient is Taylor? Well, let's put it this way - in March of 2001, just four bouts removed from his fight with Muriqi - Taylor lost to North Carolina's Frankie Hines, whose record was 14-109-5.

Even the fighter who beat Muriqi was intended to be another walkover. DAN SHEEHAN was 7-4 when he scored a DQ win over Muriqi in March of 2000. He later dropped a decision in the rematch, which began a string where Sheehan has now lost 19 of his last 21 fights. Currently, he sits with a 9-23 record.

When I reached Joe DeGuardia, CEO of Star Boxing, who had Muriqi under a promotional contract early in his career, he indicated that to his knowledge, any and all of Muriqi's opponents for the shows that took place in the New York-New Jersey area were used contingent upon Atlas' knowledge and approval. DeGuardia told me he never heard an objection from Atlas about the quality of an opponent on the basis that it was "making a mockery of boxing."

As far as the fighters like Rhinehart, Ladson, and Ussery, all of whom Muriqi fought in the South, DeGuardia says he had little or nothing to do with those fights; rather, "Muriqi's guys got the opponents themselves."

It bears mentioning that Teddy Atlas makes a generous weekly salary to train Elvir Muriqi - reportedly it's in the neighborhood of $1000 a week - so the motivation to put Muriqi's in with competitive fighters who might curtail his career, and that weekly arrangement, is exceedingly low.

My friend, the respected Pulitzer Prize nominee Thomas Hauser, recently did a story on SecondsOut.com entitled "Professional Losers". I would suggest perhaps the more appropriate story might be about the fighters who artificially build their records against this circuit of losers, and the people - like Atlas - who enable this farcical process to take place.

You see, I blame those people more, because at least they're empowered with more options.

And when we see the choices those folks eventually make, it tells us an awful lot about them, doesn't it?