Victor Ortiz wasn't the only one to get sucker-punched on television this weekend. Sergei Polonsky, a Russian billionaire real estate magnate, was socked in the jaw by Russia media tycoon Alexander Lebedev during a TV debate about the global financial crisis, according to a clip from Moscow's NTV.
In the clip, posted on the web before the show aired on Sunday night, Polonsky quips that he felt like "bashing" Lebdev in the face, prompting the silver-haired Lebedev, a former KGB agent, to jump to his feet.
Polonsky stays seated and keeps his cool, and eventually Lebedev sits down, apparently putting an end to the spat.
But suddenly, Lebedev unleashes a flurry of punches on the Polonsky's head, sending the fabulously wealthy real estate heavy tumbling to the ground.
Lebedev then drops into a fighter's crouch as Polonsky gets up, but the show's host puts a stop to the scuffle.
In a post on blog afterwards, Lebedev wrote that he had to "neutralize" Polonsky before Polonsky hit him first.
"Unfortunately, NTV viewers cannot see how Polonsky behaved during the one-and-a-half hour recording. Everybody could see that he was absolutely off his head," Lebedev wrote.
Polonsky doesn't appear bloodied in the video, but later said he hurt his hand and ripped his pants.
Lebedev, estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth $3.1 billion, made a fortune in the banking industry and owns Novaya Gazeta, a Russian opposition newspaper, and two British papers, the Independent and the Evening Standard.
He also owns 30% of the Russian airline Aeroflot.
Polonsky, estimated to be worth over $1 billion, is the ex-chief of Mirax Group, one of the largest developers in Moscow.
Russian political shows often devolve into fisticuffs.
In perhaps the most famous incident, nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky fired his drink, glass-and-all, at his opponent during a TV debate in 1995.
