By Miles Templeton
BUNNY STERLING of St Pancras will always be remembered as the first black fighter, not born in the UK, to win the British title. He was the first to take advantage of the rule changes introduced by the Board in 1968 and beat one of British boxing’s golden boys to win his title.
Mark Rowe had a very successful amateur career, culminating in winning the gold medal at the 1966 Commonwealth Games held in Perth, Australia. Representing England, Rowe overcame Scotsman Tom Imrie to win the light-middleweight gold and it was sweet revenge for the Londoner after being knocked out by Imrie in the ABA final at the same weight just over three months ago earlier. When Rowe defected two months later, he did so in a blaze of publicity at the Royal Albert Hall.
Meanwhile, Bunny had made his professional debut in the less austere setting of Shoreditch Town Hall. He lost on points over six rounds to Islington’s Joe Devitt BN stated that Sterling “was willing, showed a punch or two and always fought back. Given the chance to learn his business, the St Pancras lad could do well.”
Sterling had arrived in the UK aged seven from Jamaica in 1955 and was educated at Fortescue Boarding School in Twickenham where he played rugby, football and cricket. He also did boxing, and as an amateur with the Polytechnic BC. passed under the tutelage of the late, great George Francis. Recognizing a good fighter when he saw one, George encouraged Bunny to turn professional and stayed with him as his trainer. The loss to Devitt was quickly followed by two more, but Bunny learned from those losses and quickly turned things around, winning his next seven.
By 1969, he was mixing it up with Johnny Kramer, Wally Swift, Harry Scott and Dick Duffy. Despite losing to all four of those fighters, Sterling was selected by the board to enter a British middleweight title eliminator against Denny Pleace, knocking him out in nine rounds at the Anglo-American Sporting Club. A final elimination against Harry Scott followed and Sterling got his revenge by beating the Liverpool veteran over twelve in Nottingham.
Sterling Bunny
Rowe had captured the British title at Wembley in May 1970 by beating another Liverpudlian, Les McAteer, over 14 rounds and when he faced Sterling in his first defense four months later, most believed he could defeat the Sterling. . BN was no exception, predicting a stoppage win for Rowe. The two fighters could not have had more contrasting careers, with Rowe winning his last 15 contests, mostly on big London shows, and Bunny, struggling to get fights, losing regularly and campaigning on the continent for to find a job.
Rowe’s trainer, Bill Chevalley, was already talking about matching his lad with world champion Nino Benvenuti after he had beaten Sterling, but those plans were derailed by what happened in that Wembley ring in September 1970. Commonwealth title was also at risk and Bunny, in what BN referred to as the “shock of the year” did not break. He boxed on the back foot for the first two rounds, trying to avoid Rowe’s chasing big punches, and then after catching Rowe with his head and causing a cut, Rowe tore at him, calling for an early stoppage.
This brought out the best in Sterling, who was boxing better than ever, and managed to avoid Rowe’s desperate attacks. Rowe was then cut on the other side of his face and with blood pouring from two bad cuts, the referee, Wally Thom, stopped the fight after four rounds, much to the annoyance of Rowe and his camp.
Bunny remained champion for four years, winning the Lonsdale belt outright, before losing to Kevin Finnegan in February 1974. He was the first immigrant to win the British title and his place in British boxing history is assured.
