‘The Challenge’: Brad Reveals Which Former Champ Reached Out About Season 39 Elimination

The Challenge: Cutthroat winner Brad Fiorenza was the latest champion to enter the fray this season, subtitled Battle for a New Champion. Fans got to see him put up a great fight against contender Kyland Young, but it wasn’t enough to allow him to take home $10,000 from the cast’s prize pot. Following his appearance on , Brad spoke with PopCulture.com about the elimination — including who he would have chosen if given the chance — and his thoughts on whether he’d want to make a return back to the flagship series. 

While several of the champs beforehand did a little trash-talking with the contenders, Brad came in with a great deal of respect for the cast and the experience itself. He even noted that this was a sentiment that the cast took away, as well, calling him “the nicest one out of all of them [champions].” Even though he didn’t have any rivals on the cast, and walked away without creating any new ones, he did have a plan in place had he chosen “chaos.” He explained that he got a call from fellow champion Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, who lamented how he was “heartbroken” over the situation with Moriah Jadea and James Lock. For that reason, Brad said that he would have chosen James to go against in the elimination in a nod to his friend. 

“One of my boys, Johnny, called me up beforehand and he said that he had somebody that he was a little upset with,” Brad said. “And to be honest with you, I normally wouldn’t do something like this, but my man sounded pretty heartbroken at the time. So I was like, you know what? I’m going to do him this favor. So I told him, if you want me to call this guy out, I’ll do it for you.” The Challenge champ continued, “Then I got there and then I realized I had to do it. I told him I was going to do it and I was like, I hope I don’t pull that damn thing because I felt nervous that if I did now I’m going to get into… it’s going to look personal, but it’s not. I was just trying to do my guy a favor.”

Considering that he didn’t end up having to call out James, Brad might have a clean slate when it comes to the Season 39 cast. That may set him up nicely for Season 40 of The Challenge, which he is interested in competing on. He explained that while he has competed on a couple of seasons of the All Stars spinoff, he has some unfinished Challenge business that can only be accomplished on the flagship. 

“The flagship is just a different vibe and it’s something that I’m still interested in pursuing,” he said. “I think the biggest difference between the two games [All Stars vs the flagship] is I don’t think you’re going to a Hall Brawl in All Stars, but you will see that in the flagship. I’m not saying I want Hall Brawl, and I’m not saying I don’t have a plan for Hall Brawl if I’m massively outsized. But what I will say is just even given that scenario, like God forbid this actually gets me in the scenario, then I’d be an idiot for saying this, but I want that rush. I want to leave that history in the game.”

The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion airs on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. ET on MTV. Stay tuned to PopCulture.com for Challenge coverage all throughout Season 39.