Kou Voravong
Kou Voravong grew up in Savannakhet and pursued a primary education there. He obtained the « certificat d'études primaires complémentaire indochinois » - Certificate of Indochinese Additional Primary Studies - (CEPCI) in 1930, went afterward to Vientiane and began his first-secondary-school year at the Collège Auguste Pavie. But because of a conflict which opposed him to French Colonial administration, his adopted father was sentenced to prison that same year. As reaction to this situation, Kou Voravong left school and returned to Savannakhet. As an out-of-school teenager, he practiced sports, especially soccer.
Leo Fong
Fong was born in the Xinhui district of the city of Jiangmen, located in the province of Canton, China in 1928. At the age of five, he arrived in Seattle, Washington with his parents and siblings. They were detained for a time, as was common with immigrants from Asia. Upon being released in Seattle, the family traveled overland to Chicago. Leo's maternal uncle owned a restaurant there and his father had been guaranteed work. After enough time working at the restaurant, Leo's father, E.H., had saved enough money to purchase a small grocery store in the tiny agricultural community of Widener, Arkansas. After suffering racial taunts at school, going home telling his father and finding out what they actually meant and then later suffering further racial taunts, he got into a fight at school and he was punished by a teacher. At age 12 he bought a book called "The Fundamentals of Boxing" by Barney Ross. He studied the book from cover to cover and learned how to defend himself from bullies. He took up boxing at age 15. Having a knock out punch, his amateur record was 18–7. As well as having a great amount of experience from the American amateur boxing program, Fong had very good experience in weight training. He was friend and student of professional bodybuilder Bill Pearl, and had trained under him for a few years.