Alex Gong

Alexander James Gong (October 14, 1970 – August 1, 2003) was an American Muay Thai kickboxer.

Early life Gong was born and raised in Boston. When he was 8, Alex Gong's parents went through an acrimonious divorce; during a dispute over custody, his father, James Gong, took the boy to India and Tibet, leaving him in the care of Children's Village, a boarding school in Dharamsala. Alex did not see his mother for nearly three years; when he was 11, he turned up at the United States embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal. At the time, he could not find his mother, Nita, because she had returned to using her maiden name (Tomaszewski) and was living in New Hampshire. In 1989, Gong met Chuck Norris at the Fresno Yosemite International Airport, where Gong was working at a ticket counter. and Duane Ludwig.

Gong was featured as a fighter in an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger entitled "Legends", alongside notable fighters Joe Lewis, Bill Wallace, Howard Jackson, Don Wilson, Olando Rivera, Jean-Claude Leuyer, and Danny Steele.

In addition to his fighting career, in 1996 Gong opened a branch of the Fairtex Gym at 444 Clementina in San Francisco to instruct students in Muay Thai after the Fairtex in Chandler, Arizona at which he had initially trained went bankrupt, hiring Bunkerd Fairtex as the head trainer. When he first came to the Bay Area, he had trained in makeshift facilities.

Titles US Amateur Light Middleweight Champion (1995) According to a woman who was a passenger in the car, the driver told Gong "I can't stop, I'm wanted by the police, I can't stop and deal with this, I'm sorry, but I gotta go" to which Gong responded by smashing the car's window and turn signal. Witnesses say the driver shot Gong at point blank range and fled in his vehicle, turning right on Harrison. Brian Lam, then working as an instructor at Fairtex, had followed Gong to the scene and provided CPR alongside a motorcycle police officer, but Gong was pronounced dead at the scene. The license plate of the car driven by the hit-and-run driver was publicized following Gong's death. The gym was closed after the shooting, but regulars and neighbors posted tributes. On August 4, 2003, after police received an unspecified tip, a man named a "person of interest" in the shooting was confronted at a hotel in South San Francisco. Following a lengthy standoff with police, the man died by suicide. No one was ever charged in Gong's death.