Yia Mua, a Hmong Legend speaks about his life in and out of the spotlight with 18XEEM.

This interview was published in the July 2007 issue of 18XEEM.

Where were you born?
I was born in Laos on May 18th. Laos fell to Communism on May 15th. Basically, two days after I was born, we left Laos. I came to Thailand and we were over there for 6 months. In 1975, we came to the US. We were the first wave of Hmong immigrants to come over.

What have you been doing?
I’ve been retired for about two years from fighting now. Currently, I’m in financial services. I do real estate mortgage and financial planning.

How did you get into Muay Thai Kickboxing?
It was kind of like a dare. Laughs. I’ve always been in martial art –since I was 9, when I started training. I had a childhood friend who was doing Chinese kick-boxing, eventually he ended up being my trainer. He started competing first though and I would watch him fight, and I liked it. Then when I was 18, I started fighting amateur. At 19, I turned professional.