Boxer vs bear

One of the sports with the greatest and richest history is undoubtedly boxing. It has existed in different varieties since Ancient Greece, and to this day it is one of the most attractive, but at the same time thought-provoking sports, mainly because of the violence that is promoted. But some people clearly have no idea what horrors have happened historically in the world of boxing.

In the 20th century, one of the new "fads" in boxing was… fighting bears. Some have ended with a fatal end, others - with less severe consequences for the person, but they are little documented. And only one fight remains in the history books as official, and a boxer who does not even have a Wikipedia page is known to many of the sport's fans to this day.

The year is 1949, and in a ring surrounded by a cage, Gus Waldorf and... a huge bear! To spare the boxer's life, the bear is muzzled and boxing gloves are placed on its front paws to prevent the bear from using its claws to advantage. Many of the wild animal's strengths have been removed, but the fact that this is a huge, untamed bear is enough against a common man with an unimpressive physique should speak volumes for the final outcome of the fight.

However, for the statistics, the fact remains that the bear wins absolutely without appeal. The boxer doesn't throw a single punch, and the bear, though with a tied shin and paws he can't use effectively, remains a bear and crushes his opponent pure and simple with his size. Before anything more fatal could happen, the match was called off. Waldorf survived, and his legend continues to this day.

A similar fight took place in 1951 - just two years later, when an Iranian man fought a bear that was neither tied, muzzled, nor gloved. It is not known exactly how the "head-on collision" ended, but there is a photo of the Iranian man on a ball on the table and the bear on top of and behind the man. Exactly what she does to him is unclear, but the records do not say how the altercation ended.

Apparently in the 20th century they had a strange understanding of what it was like to play with animals…