While Will Smith was shooting a new movie, “Collateral Beauty,” on Bleecker St. last week, he dropped in at No. 9 to check out Overthrow Boxing.
He struck a fighter’s stance with Daniel Coleman, Overthrow’s trainer, then did some energetic gloveless sparring with Alicia
“The Empress” Napoleon, who recently won the W.B.C. superwelterweight title.
Smith also posed for a photo with Justin Tompkins, the place’s diminutive floor general. Also watching the action with Overthrow’s Joey Goodwin was June Leaf. She and her husband, Robert Franks — whose “The Americans” is considered perhaps the 20th century’s most influential photography book — are neighbors of the Yippie headquarters-turned-boxing gym.
“At first, Frank was grumpy as he is not keen on all the gentrification that is taking place on the Lower East Side,” said photographer Clayton Patterson. “But now that he has met Joey and the folks at Overthrow, they are good friends. Often June, Robert and Joey hang out. Robert goes into the gym and watches the fighters practice.”
A retrospective show of Leaf’s drawings, “June Leaf: Thought Is Infinite,” will be opening at the Whitney Museum of American Art, at 99 Gansevoort St., on April 27 and running through July 17. No doubt, it’s sure to be a knockout!
