If you encountered a 300-pound black bear, your first instinct likely wouldn't be to punch it in the face.
But that's exactly what 61-year-old Rick Nelson did when a mother bear confronted him in Ontario.
Nelson, a former featherweight boxer, was walking his dog on Sunday when a black bear cub poked its head out onto the path and yelped, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
"I sat down on a log and the bear cub poked its head out of the shrub nearby," Nelson told CBC. "It was so close I could touch it. It let out a yelp, because I scared the heck out of it."
"I knew right away I was in trouble," he said. "It's calling for mommy."
61-year-old Ontario man punches bear, walks away with scratches https://t.co/ko0tMZhKUt pic.twitter.com/gycCl44skM
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Nelson said he could hear the bush crashing and knew the mother was coming at full speed. He looked around for rocks or sticks he could use to defend himself but found nothing. The mother bear was soon standing on its hind legs up in front of him.
Nelson tried to punch the bear in the snout but missed, hitting it in the teeth instead and tearing up his hand. The bear hit back and scratched Nelson across his chest and face.
"I knew it would swing first with its left but it would really come with its right, because most bears are right-handed," Nelson told CBC.
Nelson landed a solid second punch, delivering an uppercut to the bear's snout that made her start snorting blood. The cub squealed and started to move away, and Nelson knew it was a critical moment: The mother would either walk away and follow her cub, or stay and fight him.
"(The mother bear) turned around and it was snorting blood. It looked at me, and I thought, 'Oh no. Here it comes,'" he said. "But it just turned back around and walked away like nothing ever happened and followed the cub. So I really lucked out there."
Despite his encounter, Nelson said black bears aren't typically dangerous unless a cub is involved.
"Sometimes black bears get a really bad rap. Probably they're more afraid of you and me, than we are of them," he told CBC. "I'm really glad that the bear walked away. And I'm really glad I did too."
Nelson told the Huffington Post Canada that he didn't go to the hospital because he "didn't feel he needed to." He used peroxide and antibiotic cream at home instead.