Gary D'Amato

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

McFARLAND - Duarn Vue doesn’t really know what led him to an off-the-beaten-path gym south of Madison’s beltline and back into a world he thought he’d left behind.

He’d quit boxing after achieving modest success as a self-coached amateur. He couldn’t find anyone in his hometown of Sheboygan to train him, to fix flaws in his technique, to give him guidance and goals. He couldn't find sparring partners to push him. So he simply lost interest.

Then he lost his way.

Vue’s ring nickname — “The Storm” — referred to his swarming, seething style but soon also described the dark clouds gathering over him.

“I was looking for myself,” he said. “I was lost. I was adrift. I basically became the crowd. I started drinking, all that stuff, hanging out with the wrong guys.”

So how did he wind up walking through the door of Supreme Hits Boxing and into trainer Murid Muhammad’s life?

Vue, 30, pondered the question for several seconds.

“Faith,” he finally said. “I found him by faith. I was basically guided to him somehow.”

Boxer and trainer have forged a bond that transcends sport. Muhammad refers to Vue as his “son” and Vue’s respect and admiration for his trainer, manager and mentor is evident. Muhammad is a Muslim, and Vue converted to Islam.

Their synergy has the 130-pound boxer unbeaten (11-0-2) as a professional and blazing a pioneering path for the Hmong community.

No American of Hmong descent has ever made it big in pro sports. Vue’s success in the ring has made him an almost cultlike figure in Wisconsin, which has the third-biggest Hmong population — about 60,000 — in the United States. His fights draw increasingly more Hmong supporters and his cellphone blows up with congratulatory messages after he wins.

“I’m happy to have that kind of support,” Vue said. “In the Hmong community, we don’t have that kind of support but somehow, with me rising like this … we never had anything like this before as a people.

“When one of us actually rises, it makes everyone happy.”

Muhammad said he and Vue attended a Hmong festival in Green Bay last year and were mobbed by thousands of fans.

“We shook so many hands that literally my hand was aching,” he said. “It was crazy. We must have shaken hands with 4,000 or 5,000 people. You have to pinch yourself when you see what Duarn means to them. He’s breaking barriers.”

The Hmong, an ethnic group from Southeast Asia, traditionally have not embraced athletics, in part because sports are not important to their culture and in part because Hmong are typically a small-framed people. Vue stands just 5 feet 2¾ inches.

“The size of the Hmong, we are smaller, so every time you take on sport activities it becomes challenging,” said Thai Vue, executive director of the La Crosse-based Wisconsin United Coalition of Mutual Assistance Associations, an umbrella agency of nonprofit Hmong associations.

Thai Vue, who is not related to the boxer — Hmong have only 18 last names — said Duarn’s success in the ring served as inspiration, particularly for young Hmong looking for a role model.

“In terms of an opportunity for Hmong to see somebody like Duarn, it’s really hopeful for the young people,” he said. “Someone who is able to compete at that level, it gives us a good, positive image.”

When Duarn Vue (pronounced Dorn Voo) walked into the Supreme Hits Boxing gym four years ago, he weighed 181 pounds.

“He’s not going to like me telling you this, but we called him ‘The Panda,’ ” Muhammad said with a laugh.

The trainer, a former professional heavyweight boxer, immediately recognized the talent under all that physical and emotional baggage and went about rebuilding Vue. He changed the boxer’s awkward style, taught him how to use head movement to make up for his lack of height, how to crowd opponents to offset his reach disadvantage. Along the way, Vue lost 50 pounds and gained confidence.

“I had to get his body right, put him on the right nutritional plan,” Muhammad said. “He’s shredded now. He’s muscled up.”

Vue is a volume puncher with considerable power for a smaller man. He constantly comes forward to press the action and fights with such fury that he appears to be angry.

Asked to describe his style, he said, “Mike Tyson, with a lot of punching like (Manny) Pacquiao.”

Muhammad, 48, said it would be inaccurate to call Vue a brawler.

“He shows skill in his fights,” the trainer said. “You can’t call him a brawler. He’s an attacker for sure. He’s an aggressive attacker, but he’s an attacker that comes with skill and intelligence.

“One of the things I push is ring IQ. We’re always thinking five or six steps ahead of our opponent. We want to make opponents do something that they’re not used to doing and we want to make them pay for it. If you really know boxing and you look at Duarn’s fights, you’ll see how he sets things up.”

Vue made his pro debut on June 6, 2013, and already has had 13 fights, or an average of one every 2½ months. His next fight is scheduled for April 29 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.

He’s risen quickly through the ranks and currently is the 15th-ranked super-featherweight in the U.S. and No. 113 in the world.

There’s a reason he fights so often. At 30, his window for a title shot with one of the major boxing organizations will start closing in a few years. He has to create a buzz and do it quickly, because it’s difficult for boxers who aren’t managed by a big promotion such as Top Rank or Golden Boy to get TV exposure, make good money or get a chance to fight for a title.

Muhammad believes Vue is ready for a title shot now and the two have been calling out former four-weight champion Nonito Donaire.

“This guy is ready for anybody,” Muhammad said. “He had eight sparring partners in his last camp and every one of them got dropped. He made two of them throw up with body shots. He knocked three of them out.”

Vue is one of Madison’s best-kept secrets. But Muhammad and Vue believe that if the boxer keeps winning, he’ll become impossible to ignore. His all-out style and his story — the son of political refugees who fled genocide in Laos and the first Hmong to achieve success in the ring — make him a potential star.

“The Mexicans have Canelo (Alvarez),” Muhammad said. “The Filipinos have Manny. Puerto Rico has (Miguel) Cotto. When someone has a culture of people behind them, you have a superstar.”

Asked what it would mean to the Hmong community should Vue win a world title, Thai Vue said. “It would be like winning the lottery. That kind of story would help shed a very positive light on the Hmong. It would have a great positive impact to the Hmong around the globe, not just in Wisconsin.”

The odds may be stacked against Vue, but that doesn’t bother him. When he was 3, his father, Chia Cher Vue, led a group of fleeing Hmong out of the jungle and to freedom. He can handle whatever happens in the ring.

“I have faith in Allah,” he said, “and faith in my coach.”

It helps, also, to pack power in both fists.