A volley of kicks and punches were unleashed as fights broke out on the Bowery on Friday night, but it wasn’t what you think: More than 500 people had descended on the lavish Beaux Arts building that once housed the Bowery Savings Bank to watch “Combat at the Capitale.” Presented by Lou Neglia, a three-time champion of the World Kickboxing Association, the night showcased some of the top kickboxers from gyms in New York City and beyond.

Shortly after 8 p.m., the first of the evening’s 16 scheduled bouts began. Wearing headgear, gloves and shin guards, Rich Schaefer and Nazin Sadykov battled each other for three two-minute rounds, their fists hissing through the air and legs thumping against each other. Fans sipping beer and pricy mixed drinks from hilariously tiny plastic cups shouted for the occasional “uppercut!” and “leg sweep!” in thick New York accents. Mr. Schaefer prevailed over Mr. Sadykov in a close decision, having gained the edge on two out of the three judges’ scorecards.

Almost every bout of the evening was a close one. That was no accident. When gyms contact Mr. Neglia with the fighters they want to put up for a match, he weighs them closely.  “I take pride that I make the fights even,” he said during a phone interview on Saturday. He added, “No one wants to watch an uneven fight.” Read more…

You’ve met Doug and Bryan, James and Veronica, Jimmy and Lexi, and Chris and Dan. To cap off our series about couples in the East Village, meet Jamie and Liz.

Additional photographs by Alan Gastelum

Jamie McCormick and Elizabeth Quijada have found the perfect brew of work, love and family at their East Seventh Street espresso shop, Abraço. After befriending each other six years ago in their mutual home state of California, they quickly fell into an organic relationship fostered by their shared appreciation of music, the East Village and all things coffee. Watch The Local’s video to find out why, even after the birth of their daughter Lily a year ago, they haven’t yet decided to tie the knot.

Good morning, East Village.

Before we get to the news, do watch the above YouTube video, posted on Sunday, of a 3 a.m. singalong at Nino’s Pizza on St. Marks Place and Avenue A.

And now: The Lo-Down reported this morning that emergency crews were on the scene of a water main break that flooded the intersection of Bowery and Delancey Street.

DNA Info reports that Chelsea Elliot, of Brooklyn, and Jeanne Mansfield, of Massachusetts, have filed a lawsuit against Anthony Bologna, the police officer who pepper-sprayed demonstrators at a Sept. 24 Occupy Wall Street march near Union Square. Read more…

As Valentine’s Day approaches, The Local is celebrating East Village couples. We’ve heard the stories of Doug and Bryan, and James and Veronica. Today: meet Jimmy and Lexi.

Christopher Beckwith, a musician who goes by the name Young Jimmy, met Lexi Bella, a friend of a friend, on Facebook two years ago. Ms. Bella, who was then 28, dated mainly older men, but Jimmy, who was 22, broke the trend.

Her conservative parents weren’t happy about the interracial relationship, but when Lexi became unexpectedly pregnant with Jimmy’s child, they decided to move into a one-bed apartment in the East Village together.

When Lexi was seven months pregnant, her father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It turned out to be benign, but it gave her reason to reconnect with her parents during Thanksgiving last year. It was the first time they realized they would be grandparents soon.

“Life is funny,” Lexi said. “The tumor started to make my father appreciate what he should appreciate, which is love and family.”

Lexi and Jimmy’s relationship has sometimes been a rocky one. Watch The Local’s video to hear more about the challenges they’ve faced. “The bottom line,” says Lexi, “is that at the end of the day, we reassess every day how we are and who we are and we realize we love each other.”

If you’ve been dying to try Kajitsu ever since David Chang of Momofuku said it “might be the best restaurant in the city,” you better do it quick: Grub Street reports that the East Ninth Street spot (which has one of the city’s best vegetarian tasting menus, per a list on Eater today) is relocating to midtown in the summer.

Scott Lynch

First Catwoman, and now this: a man dressed as Superman climbed the statue of George Washington in Union Square Park this afternoon. Tweeters said he called for the freedom of Tibet and at one point uttered the Dr. Bronner’s-esque line: “The world will be united as one in the future.” According to DNA Info, he was in the saddle for about an hour before being taken into custody. City Room has a photo of the arrest.

Evan Bleier

Speaking of filming locations: James Gray will be shooting his next movie on East Ninth Street on Wednesday and Thursday, according to a notice between Second and Third Avenues demanding that cars be moved by 6 p.m. tomorrow. Here’s IMDB’s description of the film, which was at one point titled “Low Life”: “An innocent immigrant woman is tricked into a life of burlesque and vaudeville until a dazzling magician tries to save her and reunite her with her sister who is being held in the confines of Ellis Island.” Keep your eyes peeled for the film’s top stars, Marion Cotillard and actor-turned-rapper-turned-actor Joaquin Phoenix, who has appeared in three of Mr. Gray’s other films, “Two Lovers,” “The Yards,” and “We Own the Night.”

Natalie Rinn

On St. Marks Place, where the Sock Man and similar vendors have plied their trade for years, new competition has popped up in a vacant restaurant space. The store goes by the name of Sox in the City.

At 12 St. Marks Place –  in a historic building that has held an array of restaurants, from the Korean spot Gama to the Tex-Mex joint San Marcos  – the bar and tabletops that recently belonged to Hirai Mong Fusion Restaurant are now piled with wool-knit socks, hats and gloves from Afghanistan and Nepal.

Kate FitzGerald, 25, said that her father, Charles FitzGerald, who has owned the building since the 1970s, opened the pop-up to sell off overstock from In the Woods, his recently shuttered store in Martha’s Vineyard. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because In the Woods, which still has an outpost in Bar Harbor, Maine, had a location across the street at 11 St. Marks Place. In 2005, The Times noted that Mr. FitzGerald had kept a store there since 1961.

Down the block at 27 St. Marks Place, the vendor who goes by the name The Sock Man wasn’t too concerned about the return of the competition. “He’s selling for $12, I’m selling for $10. If he’s going to sell socks and hats, I wish him good luck.” Read more…

Stephen Rex Brown

Good morning, East Village.

A press release from District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. announces the indictment of Jeffrey Bernstein. Mr. Bernstein once owned Pudgie’s Famous Chicken, an outpost of which is opening on First Avenue; he’s accused of stealing more than $2,500,000 from the Albert Ellis Institute. For more on the charges of grand larceny and money laundering, read the press release here.

Capital New York reflects on urban etiquette signs such as the one outside of Heathers bar that reads “if you go outside to smoke, please go all the way over to the corner of Avenue A.” The piece theorizes that “through the ’80s and ’90s [East Village] residents were paying rents low enough that they could overlook nighttime noise. As rents increased, so did complaints.” Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York disagrees with the idea: “We didn’t overlook noise prior to 2003–we remember when the East Village was much quieter and less crowded than the nightmare of screeching it is today.”

The Wall Street Journal notes the trend of Lower East Side and East Village restaurateurs opening offshoots in Williamsburg. A broker points out that Williamsburg’s retail rents are much lower: from $30 to $80 a square foot, compared with $100 to $150 a square foot. “The cheaper rents allow [restaurant owners] to experiment with new concepts with less risk involved.” Read more…

Signs announcing the filming of “Smash” indicate that cars on Sixth and Seventh Streets, between First and Second Avenues, must be moved by 6 a.m. tomorrow, for a shoot between 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. It’s the fourth time (at least) that the NBC show has come to the neighborhood.

Daniel Maurer At Eighth and Avenue B.

In a show of solidarity for Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested in Oakland, a group marched from Washington Square Park, as far north as 29th Street, and then back south to Tompkins Square Park – with a symbolic stop at the former Charas/El Bohio community center. Witnesses reported smashed bottles and arrests in the East Village last night.

Shortly before 10 p.m., protesters who had gathered at Washington Square Park three hours earlier made their way to the former P.S. 64 building on East Ninth Street, which was at the center of demonstrations last month. As The Local has reported, some residents want the developer who owns the vacant building to use it as a community center again.

After hearing a few words about the building’s history, the group – escorted by a column of police officers in the street – walked down Avenue C, then Eighth Street, and then Avenue B before stopping at East Seventh Street, at the entrance of Tompkins Square Park. Read more…

Steve Kraus

As documented in a DNA Info video, Steve Kraus has been publishing the New York Good News since the 1960s. Now 82, he has lived just above Café Mogador on St. Marks Place for the past 37 years. He also volunteers for the Jewish Foundation of the Righteous. The following piece appeared in a 1979 booklet produced by the Alternative Press Syndicate, titled “Alternative Media: How the Muckrakers Saved America,” published by Bell and Howell. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

Steve Kraus – How Green Was My Underground

For more on “Blowing Minds: The East Village Other, the Rise of Underground Comix and the Alternative Press, 1965-72,” read about the exhibition here, and read more from EVO’s editors, writers, artists, and associates here.

Tomorrow after a public hearing, the City Council’s Committee on Civil Rights and the Committee on Veterans will vote on a resolution prompted by the death of Danny Chen, the East Village soldier who committed suicide in Afghanistan after he was allegedly abused by his peers. Resolution 1188 “calls upon the United States Department of Defense to closely examine its policies around cultural diversity and sensitivity and to impose more effective and comprehensive training regiments for military personnel in cultural awareness, diversity and sensitivity to prevent the discrimination and harassment of all military personnel, including servicemen and women within its ranks.” The hearing will take place at 250 Broadway, on the 16^th floor, at 10 a.m.

Meanwhile, The Villager reports that during Community Board 3’s meeting on Tuesday, the board voted to support a resolution, brought by Borough President Scott Stringer, calling for an investigation into the police department’s stop-and-frisk practices. Mr. Stringer has blamed the controversial policy for “creating a wall of distrust between people of color and the police that makes it harder, not easier, to solve crimes.”

Daniel Maurer Will Zaragoza get its beer back?

More pizza for the East Village! Community Board 3 has unleashed its February calendar of meetings and among the companies that will ask the S.L.A. and D.C.A. Licensing committee for support on Feb. 13 will be San Matteo. An employee the pizzeria’s Upper East Side location says a second one will open at 121 St. Marks Place in mid-February. Also on the committee’s agenda: Nevada Smiths is signed up to plead for liquor at its forthcoming new location at 100 Third Avenue; Nublu is still vying for liquor at what owner Ilhan Ersahin said would be a “cultural extension” close to its reopened Avenue C location; the recently opened Vietnamese spot Sao Mai is asking for wine and beer; and Zaragoza, the beloved bodega and taqueria that lost its beer back in September, will try to get its cases stocked again. See all the rest of the action, including some mystery applications on the Bowery and Avenue C, here.

Daniel Maurer

Okay, so they didn’t garner any votes when we asked you to pick the neighborhood’s wildest wheels, but these two lookers – a Dodge Dart Swinger and a Ford Fairlane 500 – are still two of our favorites. Imagine how delightful it was to see these green machines perpendicularly parked at the corner of East Sixth Street and First Avenue on this fine, sunny day. If you own either (or both) of these, e-mail The Local. We want a ride!