User blog comment:Omega natsu2/Episode 176: The Dragon King, Review./@comment-24277053-20140405214324/@comment-7418318-20140405222431

We don't really know how strong Jiemma is offensively, but he does have a lot of resilience.

Natsu punched him quite often and he didn't even get a black eye or bruises from it. That Sting was able to hurt him like that (yes, he did survive, since it's later told that he left Sabertooth) doesn't tell us much either, since Sting caught him completely off guard.