Fighters have different primes, McVey. O'Brien already had 158 fights before he met Jack Johnson. O'brien was on his decline by 1909, Johnson was not.
Thats true ,just pointing out that OBrien was not years older than Johnson. OBrien was in decline,he had been clearly outpointed by Burns ,who was himself outclassed and manhandled by Johnson . OBrien had lost a NWS Dec to Ketchel who left him with his head in the resin box,and after the Johnson fight Ketchel would ko him again.No wonder the public did not clamour for a rematch to a decision between a trained ,fit ,Johnson and O Brien.
Surely it is up to Mendoza to produce them? So far he has not ,despite repeated requests for him to do so.
I read a story by Price in a 1968 Boxing Illustrated claiming to have knocked out Johnson in 19 minutes in a cellar. As I've never seen it mentioned anywhere else I don't believe a word of it!
To call this a NWS decision, from this one report is ridiculous. The Boston Globe- 1906 Sep 04 (page 9) MILLINOCKET, Me, Sept 3—Jack Johnson of Boston and Billy Dunning of Portland went 10 rounds to a draw here this afternoon in a slow and tame exhibition.