Mia Kang

Mia Kang (born 30 December 1988) is a fashion model, Muay Thai fighter, body positivity advocate, and television host. Kang grew up in Hong Kong as an overweight girl, but halved her weight at the age of 13, and was immediately scouted as a model. She modeled across Asia and Europe through her high school and college years. Kang got a master's degree in finance in England, and left modeling to work as a commodities trader, before returning to modeling in New York City and winning the 2016 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model search and 2017 Rookie of the Year.

In 2015, Kang signed with Trump Model Management and moved from Hong Kong to New York City, home of most of the world's top models. Sports Illustrated was her first New York City modeling assignment, and she was the first Hongkonger to become a Sports Illustrated model. She also worked in three campaigns for Guess. In August 2016, she defeated five other models from around the world in a public vote and was named the winner of the magazine's Swimsuit 2016 Model Search, to be featured in the 2017 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. She was also declared the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue 2017 Rookie of the Year.

Kang's family have a home in Koh Samui, an island off the east coast of Thailand. Kang was taking a 10-day holiday from modeling there in 2016, when she noticed young fighters from a local gym training in the combat sport Muay Thai by the side of the road, and asked if she could try it; initially just to help her lose more of the weight that she was told she needed to. The coaches were impressed enough by her workout that they suggested she join. The 10 days turned into a six or nine-month training camp, of six day a week routines. The martial arts training taught her to respect her body. The workouts were so intense she forgot she smoked. She stopped restricting what she ate, added 20-30+ pounds, became more muscled, and gained definition. Her dress size went from a size two-four to a size four-six.

Kang began to alternate her time between training and returning to New York for modeling. She kept training in New York with Phil Nurse at The Wat, and Hollywood Hino of Church Street Boxing, for about three hours daily, and in Thailand at the Bangkok Yokkao and her first gym, Yodyut, on Koh Samui, for about six hours each day. She decided to compete in her first professional Muay Thai fight in May 2017. She would have done it earlier, but her modeling agency objected strenuously; the money wasn't much compared to US modeling fees, and being injured in a fight would put her career in doubt. At least she needed to first shoot the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Sports Illustrated promised to film the fight for a digital documentary. She took a month long training with legendary Muay Thai fighter Saenchai to prepare for her fight. She said she was recommended "to have as much sex as possible" before her fight, to increase testosterone levels.

Kang's first professional fight was on 7 May 2017. She was matched against Thai fighter Nong B, who had 5 bouts experience. Kang took an elbow to the eye in the first round, which, she says, made her mad, since her face is her livelihood. She won the second round, then went in with "heavy hands" in the third round, hitting her opponent hard, and winning by technical knockout. After her victory, Kang was excited to continue into mixed martial arts, and signed with manager Malki Kawa of leading MMA agency First Round Management.

Kang tries to work with a charity in every country she models in. She supports the Wor Watthana Muay Thai gym that helps children in an impoverished region of northeast Thailand. In 2017, she raised money for a sex trafficking project called "18 for 18 Project Rescue", by skydiving from 18,000 feet (5,500 m), the highest in North America. She donated to and raised money for Drop4Drop, a charity that provides clean water to third world countries. In 2019, she joined British retailer Sweaty Betty in supporting anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label.

Kang credits Muay Thai for teaching her to love her body and even saving her life. She became a body positivity advocate, encouraging all women to have strong and healthy bodies. She started her own all-female boxing club in SoHo, New York, called "Killa Girl Gang", after her fighting name, "Killa Kang", for all levels of fitness. She hosted a body positivity retreat on Koh Samui with travel agency 109 World. A May 2018 Instagram post in which she compared photos of her emaciated size two, 99 pounds (45 kg) body in 2015 with her size eight, 170 pounds (77 kg) body in 2018, drew 14,000 "likes" and international press coverage. Kang was named a 2018 Today Show Style Hero, and the 2019 Self magazine New Year's Challenge star.

Kang continues to model, but says that her new size, eight or ten in 2018, puts her above the standard model sizes, and yet below the plus-size model sizes, so clients ask that she either gain or lose weight.

In 2020, Kang became the host of Spy Games, a reality competition television series on the American television channel Bravo, in which ten contestants compete in spy-inspired exercises for $100,000.