Mick Souza
Episode 241
11 SEP 2023
He is a former World Bodybuilding Champion, including having won Mr. Universe in 1992. All told he competed in AAU Mr. East Coast, AAU Mr. USA, AAU Mr. America, and NABBA Mr. Universe — some of those more than once and earning three first place finishes and two second place. He also competed in the 1991 Tokyo Sumo Wrestling Premier Event, winning the bronze medal. In addition, he also became a professional skateboarder; even holding the world record for jumping onto a moving skateboard — four feet and ten inches. And he was even a semi-professional boxer for three years. As a student-athlete he had broken records in high school for the high jump and track events. STAY TO THE END FOR AN EMOTIONAL STORY ABOUT HIS BROTHER.
Notable guest quotes:
“The greatest image that I’ve got when I remember my grandmother is her sitting in a chair doing a rosary… and I’m sure that’s part of God’s grace for me, what saved me.”
“I don’t think I ever trusted anybody else, so I always gravitated towards individual sports. I’m sure my father leaving (us) at a young age had a lot to do with my trust issues.”
“The first night that I stayed I had a gym bag as a pillow on the cement floor of the garage at World Gym.”
“My second night in California I was staying with Roger, and Roger and Arnold did a lot of training together, so within about 48 hours, here I was training with Arnold (Schwarzenegger).”
“I surfed most of my life and I loved surfing in hurricanes.”
“I said, ‘God was calling my mom home and you were getting in the way’.”
“For the first time I heard the Word of God come into me and saying, ‘It’s time to change if you want your mom’s life to matter’.”
“All glory to God because everything has purpose, right?”
“At this time in my life I had never read a book, ever, in my life. I was 30 years old, 31 years old, and here I am grabbing the Old King James version and it’s going to be the first book I ever read. God gave me the gift of discipline.”
“I now had Jesus as a role model, and I was learning from Him as I read… He sculpted me from the outside.”
“The book of James is one of my favorite books. I identified with James early on the first time that I read it because James is a doer. He always seemed like a physical guy that’s ready to do work.”
“A real Catholic man is a doer of the word not just a reader of the Word.”
“I basically challenged God and I said, ‘If you want me to continue to teach, then you’ve gotta change me’.”
“God writes straight lines with crooked pencils and I’m about the most crooked pencil God could’ve ever picked.”
“I begin my day between 2 and 3am with, the first hour goes to God. One of the things that I learned was God gave me the discipline, and it’s for me to return it back to Him. So, I give Him the first fruits of my life which I call the first hour of each and every day that I have.”
“It was one of the most blessed and worst experiences that I’ve ever had.”
