By Tony Nobbs
21.07 - At Thursday night's weigh-in for his 10 round Clash with Indonesia's pocket sized Dozer Tobing on the follwing evening's Taylor-Ajadarto U/C at the Southport RSL Club, IBF # 13 Bantamweight contender Nathan Sting declared to me that he was "going to steal the show", just as he had done in October 2000 when he recaptured the Australian Bantamweight Title from Johnny Binge on the Anthony Mundine-Heath Stenton undercard in Melbourne. And if you are a boxing purist, then the 29 year old local southpaw, with his dad Michael Singh present did just that as he did not lose a round in putting on a 30 minute boxing exhibition that was all class. At first, the crowd of 1500, mostly there to see the main event got behind the visitor whose walk up style was more to their liking. But after a few rounds of beautiful defence and pinpoint counterpunching the cheers quickly turned back to the local fighter who is a three time National Champion and the most unheralded fighter in this country.
Tobing, 24, never stopped trying and had odd success with right hands and left hooks, one of which briefly shook up the Australian in the opening round. Tobing was cut in the second round, ruled by referee Cyril Cairns as a head clash but with Australia's best cut-man helping the visiting fighter's, the cut was never a problem. A clash of heads at the end of the sixth caused a nasty cut over Sting's left eye which was nicely cleaned up by trainer Les Wilson.
Not a noted puncher, Sting had his man in trouble whenever he lifted the tempo and produced a huge variety of punches to the head and body of his 5 ft 2 opponent. Each round he gave the fans at ringside and those tuning in on Foxsports something different. If Sting possesed serious power there is little doubt he could win a major Title. He also has a sturdy chin as he showed when Tobing did get on. Official scores: Judges Phil Austin and Adrian Cairns gave it 100-90 while Derek Milham scored 100-91.
After the bout a happy Sting (now 23 6-1, 11 ko) said "I really wanted to box well. The crowd enjoyed it, that's good they appreciated it.It's good to go the rounds again, that's thirty two rounds this year, I'm getting fight sharp again. He was very tough, just like Bugarsio,I hit him with some good shots but he never laid down. He rocked me in the first round when I stood in front of him. The ref kept to my right a lot, which prevented me from getting my angles and it made it difficult to get away sometimes as he charged in".
Trainer Wilson also praised his boxer's display. "See, that is why I pushed to get Nathan a start on this show. The whole country got to see what he can do. Before this fight, they (the Indonesian's) knew more about Nathan than we knew about him. When Nathan did open up a bit he had him in bother a few times. It's good for TV when you get an import who has a real go. The cut will keep him out for a while, we were planning on doing something in September but that will have to be put back. It will give him time to freshen up and he will probably go to Adelaide when it heals to spar with the African's. He really benefited from his time down there before his previous fight. We were offered a fight with Nicky Booth in England for the Commonwealth Title but it was to be next weekend and we were obligated to this fight. We'd love to fight Booth later. There was also an offer for Sting to fight Michael Brodie in Manchester but he is way too big". With this win, Sting could move up in the IBF listings and Wilson is keen for his fighter to in to the top 10.
