The Challenge: Johnny Bananas calls out Ride or Dies castmate’s lack of respect over his championships

The Challenge legend Johnny Bananas reacted to remarks made by his Ride or Dies castmate, which basically claimed that the seven-time champ wasn’t all that good at the game.

Bananas, who returned for Season 38 after several seasons away from The Challenge, was one of the main stories in Ride or Dies Episode 16 as castmates realized he had been skating by all season without facing elimination.

In a spoiler alert, Bananas and his teammate, Nany Gonzalez, ended up going into elimination, where they faced the team voted in by Faysal “Fessy” Shafaat and Moriah Jadea.

That brought what may have looked like an epic matchup on paper, but the elimination event they participated in made the veteran team look way more capable of handling the task.

Bananas and Nany won the event, which featured climbing a long rope ladder using the same three rungs repeatedly until they could each get to the top of their tower on opposite sides. With their win, they ousted the former college athlete for the first time in elimination during his four seasons.

During the episode, Fessy commented about the elimination event, claiming it was the type of “stupid s**t” that Bananas excels at.

Bananas reacts to Ride or Dies castmate’s remarks

In addition to appearing in The Challenge, Bananas also hosts his weekly Death, Taxes & Bananas podcast on The Ringer. His latest episode covered Ride or Dies Episode 16 had him open by talking about the old days of The Challenge versus the upgraded and advanced present-day Challenge.

He spoke about how the cast members didn’t have any on-site gym to use, and they’d arrive at the filming locations and had to go with whatever they brought. Basically, they had to prepare ahead and be in decent shape if they wanted a chance to win.

“But now we have like semi-pro-professional soccer players and guys who peaked in their college football days and who don’t have the ability to assign any positive attributes to certain abilities and instead just write them off as being good at stupid s**t,” Bananas said in his podcast episode’s opening.

“I’m just going to say being good at stupid s**t has won me seven championships, and other people zero, but I digress,” he added.

Bananas asks Horacio about their Challenge castmate

Bananas didn’t mention names in his rant, but his guest for the latest podcast was rookie Horacio Gutierrez, who had dreamed about being a pro soccer player.

Meanwhile, Bananas’ remark about college football referred to Fessy, a two-time All-American tight end at the University of Tennessee Chatanooga.

At another point during the podcast episode, Bananas brought up Fessy’s comments again, asking Horacio his thoughts about why Fessy acts that way.

“I think he’s a great competitor. He’s a great athlete, but part of him still doubts himself at times, and that’s why he’s not willing to give that credit to other people, I think,” Horacio said.

After hearing the rookie’s thoughts, Bananas commented again about Fessy’s lack of respect for his accomplishments.

“Listen, it’s one thing to not give credit. I’m fine with that. If you don’t want to say, if you’re in a conversation, I want to say anything. But to then say like it- Here’s the thing. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah. Yeah, he’s kind of an athlete. Yeah, he’s just good at dumb s**t. And like he belongs in the f**king circus.’ And it’s like, ‘bro, I f**king beat you in a final,'” Bananas said.

Before Ride or Dies, Bananas last appeared in The Challenge: Total Madness season, where he claimed his seventh championship, the most of any cast member in franchise history. Chris “CT” Tamburello has come close, achieving his fifth during Season 37, while Fessy has appeared in two finals in his four seasons and has never won the show.

Fessy will remain at zero wins for Ride or Dies, while Bananas will compete for his eighth championship. However, the GOAT will have his work cut out for him as there will be a 100-hour final for Ride or Dies.

The Challenge: Ride or Dies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.

Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!

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