NEW YORK — When Josh "The Matrix" Weintraub of Bear Stearns Cos. stepped into the boxing ring Thursday, he had 130 supporters in his corner as he fought Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Shane "Second Coming" Kinahan in a charity match.

Weintraub and Kinahan are two of the 16 Wall Street professionals — all men — who have trained since August to beat each other up in a series of three-round bouts. Almost 800 friends, family, colleagues and guests paid as much as $800 apiece to watch and dine on beef tenderloin and Guinness ice cream.

The first Extell Wall Street Boxing Charity Championship raises money for organizations including the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Hedge Funds Care, a New York-based group that combats child abuse.

Tuesday's Children, which helps families of Sept. 11 victims, and Say Yes to Education, which aids inner-city school kids, also will benefit from Thursday's black-tie gala at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan.

"It seemed a great way to contribute my time and energy to help the community and at the same time do something I like to do," said Weintraub, 37. The mortgage bond trader, who sold tickets to friends and colleagues, is raising money for the Valerie Fund, an organization that helps children with cancer. "The night will be full out."

Weintraub fought during his freshman and junior years at Lehigh University, but some competitors had little or no previous boxing experience. That didn't stop anyone from getting into the spirit, complete with colorful fight names.

Jason "The Candyman" Rubin, who also works at Bear Stearns, boasted in a tongue-in-cheek profile posted on the match's Web site that he "has lived in a tiger cage, eating raw slabs of beef and wrestling alligators for kicks." The posting also claimed he honed his boxing skills in bars at 3 a.m.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Robert "The Baby-Faced Assassin" Bryant, played the underdog. In his profile, the 158-pound, 5-foot, 11-inch associate complained that training for the event "gets worse and worse everyday." The profile also warned, "It would be foolish to underestimate this baby face."

Like many of the boxers, he signed up to get in shape.

To get ready for the black-tie gala, the boxers received free coaching and training at Trinity Boxing Club on Greenwich Street.

Organizer Raizy Haas with New York-based Extell Development Co., the residential and commercial builder sponsoring the match, dreamed up the event while reading a profile of a Wall Street trader.

"It's sports and charity," Haas said. "How much more New York can this get?"

The answer: Add celebrities.

Judges tapped to hand out honors for the top fighter as well as the best bout included former heavyweight champions Larry Holmes and Lennox Lewis, top middleweight brawler Iran "The Blade" Barkley, and International Boxing Hall of Fame members Lou Duva and Emile Griffith.