Establishing direction and figuring out what you love with Kevin Ross

Breaking the Mold

Kevin Ross is an American Muay Thai fighter and kickboxer who’s also competed in professional boxing, shootboxing, MMA, San Shou, and held the title of Bellator’s kickboxing featherweight world champion.

He's the former Inaugural Bellator Kickboxing Featherweight (145 pounds) world champion, WMC super lightweight (140 pounds) intercontinental champion, Super lightweight (140 pounds) WBC International championship Title, the Welterweight (147 pounds) WBC USA National championship Title, the FIDAM Welterweight (147) championship of Mexico and the United States Muay Thai Federation super lightweight (140 pounds) champion.

I first heard Kevin speak when he was on Joe Rogan’s podcast. I don’t generally click on the episodes that feature fighters assuming they'll be speaking about subjects I wouldn’t really relate to. But for some reason, on this day, I clicked on Kevin’s episode and was immediately struck by the depth and topics they were discussing when it came to choosing a life path.

Kevin described his struggle with alcoholism at a young age and lacking direction in life. Not knowing what he wanted to do, or if anything at all, but knowing he didn't want to follow what he called “ the conveyor belt” most people get stuck on—the structure of society and the expectations that a lot of people unconsciously end up following.

He expressed the exact frustrations I've felt and the motivator behind putting together a podcast called "Breaking the Mold."

Here are some of the highlights from our episode:

• The realities and inconsistency in a fighting career
• Breaking the boxes that society encourages us to go in, other avenues to success, and letting go of timelines.
• Depression and lacking clear direction: we discuss how success stories don't highlight the dark times people can go through when they’re trying to figure things out
• Fear and resistance to the things you want most
• The story of losing his first fight and the mentality and decision that came out of that

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed having this conversation.

You can follow Kevin’s journey @dasoulassassin

Breaking the Mold Podcast
@alysa_scanzano