Old man stares death right in the eyes and declares, “Not today!”

In the latest of the string of bear attacks hitting Japan this year, an 63-year-old man in Gunma Prefecture found himself in a showdown with what was believed to be an Asian black bear just under two meters (6.5 feet) tall.

While the man was fishing along a river in the mountains, the bear came out of nowhere and lunged at him. Though the bear had almost 20 centimeters (8 inches) on him, it wasn’t enough of an advantage to overpower the fisherman, who also happened to be a high-ranking karate practitioner.

Armed with nothing but his bare hands, the man didn’t hesitate to fight back, and delivered swift blows to the bear’s eyes, causing it to retreat.

Caught off-guard by the initial attack, however, the man suffered injuries to multiple parts of the body, and checked himself into a hospital located nearby in the town of Naganohara.

Although an attack like this had not occurred for some time, according to the leader of the town’s agriculture and forestry section, traps were set and steps were taken to post caution signs on roads and other neighboring facilities.

As to be expected, no footage exists of the fight that occurred between the bear and the man, but we imagine it would have looked like an even more intense version of this John West commercial, with the bear attacking first:

Source: Niconico News via My Game News Flash
Feature/top image: Wikimedia Commons/JBernoulli