Following Horacio Gutierrez’s shocking elimination from The Challenge: Battle of the Eras, much discussion arrived online regarding whether he truly lost to Derrick Kosinski.
Derrick claimed he’d won the event, while Horacio, his girlfriend, Nurys Mateo, and others blasted production over how things went down.
Nurys claimed production lied about how things went with the footage shown in Episode 4 since it brought lots of confusion from viewers.
Horacio also indicated he didn’t accept the decision that he lost the elimination and gave his side of the story through an Instagram video and exclusive interview.
More recently, the former Ride or Dies finalist appeared on the Challenge Mania podcast, which Derrick co-hosts with Scott Yager.
During their discussion, Horacio admitted to missing one of the rules and presented his perspective of not necessarily thinking the show’s decision was 100 percent accurate.
Horacio appears on Derrick’s podcast to discuss their controversial Season 40 elimination
In a Challenge Mania clip on Instagram, Horacio appears on video chat with Derrick and Scott as they discuss what happened in their Season 40, Episode 4 elimination. Derrick asked if Horacio agreed he missed a rule and was wrong about picking up his pegs during the event since they didn’t need to.
“Yes. Now, after seeing yesterday’s footage,” Horacio admitted, indicating he and Derrick recently got to watch unaired video footage from The Challenge elimination.
“Shoot the ball. Pick up a peg. Catch [the ball] and put it in a [hole],” Derrick said, referring to his mindset after the rules of the event were explained to him.
“That was your mindset. I think my focus was on when it ends, have your 40 pegs on the board,” Horacio said.
He said he “missed that rule” about not needing to have all 40 pegs on the board at the end if any had fallen out during the event.
“I think that’s where people came in and were like, ‘the rule should be that,'” he said regarding fans or castmates debating how one of Derrick’s pegs wasn’t in its hole on the board at the end of the competition.
Horacio admitted he couldn’t fight with that aspect because “that’s their rule” regarding how the event would go.
“So yeah, if you want me to accept it. I missed that rule, and yeah, I made a mistake by having to pick up my own pegs. Definitely,” he said.
Horacio tells Derrick to ‘call it being a sore loser’ during their elimination discussion
As mentioned on the Challenge Mania podcast episode, Derrick and Horacio were able to review various video footage from their elimination event on The Challenge, which is unprecedented as usually that footage is kept for production to cover themselves.
Before recording the podcast episode, they watched the unaired footage featuring themselves with castmates Aneesa Ferreira and Jenny West, who were also involved in the Episode 4 elimination.
Part of the footage, recorded by production before the event, showed Horacio, Derrick, Jenny, and Aneesa learning the elimination game’s rules. Other castmates weren’t involved in it. Additional footage came from the actual elimination and showed multiple camera angles of the competitors as they battled in the game.
After seeing the footage, Horacio said he better understood the rule he missed that might have cost him the win, which initially sparked his comments after the episode aired.
“But [the] final outcome, according to them, was Derek beat me by 13 seconds,” Horacio admitted during his time on Challenge Mania.
He still expresses doubts about the decision, comparing it to something you might see in an NFL game or other professional sports: a referee makes a call based on a rule, and the player(s) involved don’t completely agree with the call’s accuracy.
“But then in my own head, my competitive mindset’s like, it’s just, ‘How are you gonna how are you now gonna now clock my my time?’ This is not them. They did their best with the time that they had, right? So this is now me. I guess if you want to call it being a sore loser, then cool, man,” Horacio said.
Before Season 40 started, Horacio hinted that this was his “last dance” on MTV’s competition series. However, his reviewing footage with the rules explanation and various angles of the competitors from the elimination event may have changed his perspective.
Scott and Derrick said they hoped to see him at future Challenge Mania events, on their show, and on TV again.
“I will be shocked if that was the last time we ever see you in the sand, my brother. So thank you so much, man,” Derrick told Horacio before ending their podcast discussion.
The Challenge: Battle of the Eras airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
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