Top 100 boxers, part 3

Here are the No. 75 down to No. 51 boxers. It contains one major surprise.

75. Panama Al Brown, 1922-42, Panama, 47.827
74. Jack Dempsey, 1914-27, U.S., 47.989
73. Juan Carlos Gomez, 1995-07, Cuba, 48.011
72. Naseem Hamed, 1992-02, United Kingdom, 48.178
71. Ike Williams, 1940-55, U.S., 48.225

70. Lennox Lewis, 1989-03, United Kingdom, 48.240
69. Hector Camacho, 1980-05, Puerto Rico, 48.423
68. Jackie Kid Berg, 1924-45, U.S., 48.427
67. Evander Holyfield, 1984-07, U.S., 48.532
66. Erik Morales, 1993-07, Mexico, 48.633

65. Nino Benvenuti, 1961-71, Italy, 48.684
64. Michael Carbajal, 1989-99, Canada, 48.812
63. Kostya Tszyu, 1992-05, Australia, 48.855
62. Sugar Shane Mosley, 1993-07, U.S., 48.885
61. Sam Langford, 1902-26, U.S., 48.957

60. Duilio Loi, 1948-62, Italy, 49.393
59. Emile Griffith, 1958-77, U.S., 49.560
58. Oscar De La Hoya, 1992-07, U.S., 49.571
57. Chiquita Gonzalez, 1984-95, Mexico, 49.674
56. Harry Greb, 1913-26, U.S., 50.478

55. Stanley Ketchel, 1904-10, U.S., 50.521
54. Tony Canzoneri, 1925-39, U.S., 50.612
53. Floyd Patterson, 1952-72, U.S., 50.614
52. Vicente Saldivar, 1961-73, Mexico, 50.623
51. Benny Leonard, 1911-32, U.S., 50.645

Just about every ranking I've even seen puts Jack Dempsey in the very top tier of heavyweight champions with Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali and Rocky Marciano.

But after looking at his career I'll stand by this ranking. Dempsey had a fine career mark of 61-6-8 with 51 KOs. He was heavyweight champion from 1919 until 1926. That's a long time.

But he rarely defended his title, once going more than three years without fighting.

He also fought very few great fighters. True, he did defeat three Hall of Famers in world title fights. But Jess Willard is one of the weakest Hall of Famers ever. He's in for his defeat of Jack Johnson, which was a 26-round knockout in sweltering Cuba. If it was a 15 rounder -- the standard just a couple of years later -- then Johnson wins all 15 rounds over the lumbering Willard.

The other Hall of Famers he beat in title fights were Tommy Gibbons, a good but not really great fighter, and Georges Carpentier, a light heavyweight.

Really, he spent most of the decade ducking the only other heavyweight at the top of his game, the black Harry Wills, who had to pay for the unpopularity of Jack Johnson.

Finally, Dempsey did face one of the all-time greats in Gene Tunney and Tunney beat him twice easily. Even in the long-count second fight, Tunney essentially won every round other than the one in which he was knocked down.

Dempsey's reputation comes from his demolition of the average Willard, his exciting win over Luis Angel Firpo and the fact he was champion in the roaring twenties. The numbers don't lie, though, he didn't do enough in the ring to warrant being in the top 50.

Someone who did is Lennox Lewis, who will move up as the fighters he defeated are added to the Hall of Fame. Evander Holyfield is a shoe-in, Mike Tyson probably is one as well and Vitaly Klitschko may make the Hall. If they all do, then Lewis will move into the neighborhood of Gene Tunney and James Jeffries at No. 39 and No. 41.