As Douglaston Development’s Ben Levine and his opponent made their way into the boxing ring, onlookers couldn’t be blamed for betting on the other guy.
The 28-year-old Levine has a baby face and wore his light gray shorts awkwardly high on his thick frame. Meanwhile, his opponent, Zach Laverty, a 31-year-old financial trader, was several inches taller and had a more athletic build.
Levine was fighting for a good cause: to raise funds for the NYU Cancer Institute, and had raked in nearly $45,000 by fight night. Both of Ben’s grandfathers suffered from cancer; his paternal grandfather, Irving, is a survivor, but his maternal grandfather, “Poppy Eddy,” succumbed at the age of 62.
Among those cheering for Levine at “Haymakers for Hope,” a charity boxing event held last month at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom, were his parents: Jeffrey Levine, Douglaston’s chairman, and Randi Levine. (Mom noted that her late father “would have preferred if Ben would have played a ping-pong tournament.”)
Also in the crowd was Newmark Grubb Knight Frank president Jimmy Kuhn. “I like his chances, but I like the Knicks versus Houston tonight,” Kuhn said, tongue-in-cheek, of Levine, referring to his belief that the underdog would triumph.
Once the fight started, however, the physical difference seemed to vanish. Within a minute into the first round, and after a particularly vicious straight right from Levine, the referee gave Laverty a standing eight count; he also sent Ben — who was jumping up and down with adrenaline — to the corner of the ring, while he checked that Laverty could continue. Satisfied, he gave the all-clear.
Levine, who had spent six weeks training for the event, didn’t let up. Just a few moments later, it was lights out for Laverty, who crashed to the floor. Knockout.
Fresh out of the ring, Levine was too spent to say much other than “I feel great.” But he later said that “I threw a jab to his body and he stopped moving and then I just kept going.”
His proud father, Jeffrey — who in the build-up to the fight had been toying with nicknames such as “Big Ben” and “Battling Ben” — said he had no doubt of the outcome of the bout.
“I’ve been sparring with him his whole life,” Jeffrey said.