By Vadim Pushkin

On January 21, BoxingScene.com reported that well-known Russian manager and promoter Vladimir Hryunov was viciously attacked on the street by four unknown assailants. Hryunov was ambushed from behind while walking to his house in Moscow. A metal object was used in the attack, with some outlets reporting that it was a hammer. 

Hryunov was hospitalized with injuries. The area around his right eye took a lot of damage and he's back home recovering.

The local authorities are investigating. Hryunov has no idea who attacked him or the motive involved.

WBA cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev was managed by Hryunov for several years. The two had a nasty split and Lebdev is now managed by Vadim Kornilov, who also works with Viktor Postol, Ruslan Provodnikov and several others.

Hryunov was the mastermind behind last December's fight between Roy Jones Jr. and Enzo Maccarinelli. Jones was brutally knocked out in four rounds.

After the fight, there was a lot of anger over the bout with many fans enraged over Jones, 47-years-old, being placed in such a dangerous fight. Jones became a Russian citizen last year. The former four division world champion spends a lot of time in Russia and has a very large celebrity-like following in the country.

Lebedev speculates if the beating on Hryunov was some form of retaliation by some individuals who were angry over the Jones knockout.

"I think the local authorities will thoroughly review the situation. Could he have been randomly beaten? I don't know who it could have been, but maybe someone wanted to get even over Jones," Lebedev said.

Even before the fight took place, Lebedev expected Jones to have a tough time with Maccarinelli, a former WBO cruiserweight world champion.

"Even before this fight took place, I said Maccarinelli would arrive in good shape and that's going to give Roy problems. And that's what happened. Enzo came to win. And Roy, due to the turmoil around his citizenship and doing so many media obligations, could not properly prepare. Jones was hoping to quickly put Maccarinelli away and then everything would be nice. Enzo was seriously prepared [for this fight] and you saw the end-result," Lebedev said.