Former Canadian feather weight boxer, 61 year old Rick Nelson, was walking his dog in Sudbury, Ontario when he decided to have a rest on a log. Just when he sat down a bear cub poked his head out of a nearby bush and Nelson, a former bear hunter, knew momma bear would soon be on scene.
Sure enough moments later a 300 pound black bear came bounding full speed at Nelson and reared up on her hind legs. He was left with no escape as his back was against a cliff and the cub and its mother in front of him. Nelson decided to swing on the bear, striking it in the teeth and injuring his hand. He spoke with HuffPo Canada and this to say about the bear’s counter strike reaction to his initial blow :
“I knew it would swing first with its left, but it would really come with its right, because most bears are right-handed.”
Nelson then followed up with tectonic uppercut that caught the bear in the snout. The bear’s nose was bloodied. For a moment Nelson thought he had just pissed the bear off and it was going to attack but it turned and retreated.
Nelson wanted to let people know that black bears are harmless in the vast majority of encounters and did not want to vilify them:
“Black bears really aren’t dangerous unless you have a cub involved, so sometimes black bears get a really bad rap. Probably they’re more afraid of you and [me], than we are of them. I’m really glad that the bear walked away. And I’m really glad I did, too,”
News of his encounter has earned him the nickname “Kung Fu Panda” at work. 
[images from huffpo cananda]
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