Man Punches Bear Twice and Walks Away

Meet Rick Nelson, former black bear hunter, who is also a featherweight boxer as a hobby. He was simply walking his dog in the woods of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. While on the walk, he took a seat on a log to catch his breath, when suddenly a bear cub popped its head out from a shrub next to him. It was so close that he was able to pat the little bear's head, which caused the cub to let out a startled yelp. Nelson knew that yelp was also a call for mama bear, which came running out of the woods right at him.

His past experience as a bear hunter meant that he knew how bears attack, Nelson feared he wouldn't leave unscathed. The bear came at him with a slash from it left claw. Knowing he couldn't evade it in time, Nelson took the chance and swung at the mama bear's snout. Instead, his punch hit the bear in the lips and teeth, causing a bit of damage to his knuckles.

Already suffering from a slash to the side from the first bear strike, Nelson got ready for another, which came from the right claw. The right claw is the dominate claw in most cases for a bear, so he took the slash to his back, but turned to strike again. This time he landed an underhand hit to the bear's snout.

Then the bear cub started to yelp again. From the corner of his eye, Nelson could see that the cub was walking away towards a nearby ravine. The bear looked towards the cub quickly, snorting blood. Nelson knew that there were two outcomes now. Either the bear would chase its cub or continue its attack, which would probably kill him.

Nelson got lucky, and the bear went after its cub. And while he knows he's fortunate to be alive, he doesn't want people to fear black bears. They only get dangerous when their cubs are involved. Nelson says that they are probably more afraid of us than we are of them. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was able to get an audio interview with him, which can be found here.