Ep. 486: Ben "The Bane" Davis

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
What's up, everybody. This is sky Yeger here with another
edition of Challenge Mania. This episode brought to you by
Challenge many A Live Phoenix where you can meet and
see a whole slew of Challenge Mania guests, including our
guest here today, but also Tory Deal, Jody Wetherton, Olivia Theo,
Derek Chavez, Nison and more. That's a stand up live
on Sunday, September the seventh. Get your tickets at Challengemania

(00:39):
dot Live. But you didn't come for me, You came
for D's for joining me right now. We've got mister
Derek Kazinski. But we also have the aforementioned man who
will be joining us in Phoenix to bring some of
this ruthless commentary that you've seen on the show, on
social media, on his own webcasts and podcasts. But we
can't just give him a normal Challenge Many intro. We

(01:00):
got to give one of these.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Everybody, please welcome, go lady.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
And look baby, let's go baby, let's go.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
All right?

Speaker 5 (01:26):
Hell yeah, And for those of you at home that
are listening right now, we apologize for a little tiny,
giddy bitty echo that you may not be noticing until
I just mentioned it, but uh, I think we are
having a psyche little audio issue there.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
But it's okay. We got big baby Ben Davis here.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
And for those of you who don't know him or
don't recognize him, he's on a show called Vets and
New Threats on every Wednesday night on The Challenge on MTV,
not on Paramount Plus. And he uh, he he's been
feeding us with all types of stew and tea on

(02:04):
social media. If you guys don't have a Twitter and X,
this is like the first person you should follow.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
He's a sports broadcaster.

Speaker 5 (02:13):
He announces where he does some of the fights at
with the.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
With the Misfits boxing. I'm gonna let him explain all that,
but before.

Speaker 5 (02:22):
We get going, I want to give you just a
little snippet of what he sounds like before he continues, Okay,
because this is what he's been given us on social media.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
Are you guys ready for this? Are you guys ready
for this? Here you go.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
America was like chatting with Olivia's boyfriend THEO and what
some said is she like tried to grab him. I
don't know in the capacity or or the context of it,
but that kind of pissed Olivia off to the point
where she goes and sits America down for like fifteen

(02:52):
twenty minutes and was just talking to her, I think,
trying to articulate, like, girl, you're being a little bit
much right now and not having it. You know, I'm
not having it. Try and you know, take a step back,
and then yeah, on the bus, makes out with d
tries to make out with Leo a ton and I
think she made out with one of the other girls,

(03:14):
maybe one or one or two of the British girls.
They'll have to Did she make out with any of
the guys? No, I didn't make out with any of
the guys. Leo, thankfully, to his credit, it was like no, right,
all right, all right, all right, clip to play? Hell
of a clip to play?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
We can just ask him.

Speaker 5 (03:36):
We want we want to get your casting story and
how you got to Fresh Meat five, of course, but
uh but yeah, I mean, because that's been like the
talk that I don't even know if we're allowed to
be talking about that.

Speaker 4 (03:49):
That's the thing. It's like, it's like, so I.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Held back until Johnny obviously went on dt B and
spoke about it at length, and so I figured, if
he's open the floodgates. Then we can all sort of
provide our perspectives on it. But it's funny because I
definitely could have shifted into the commentating mode a little
bit more, you know, with that America Night Out America
going for d gits her now on to Tay making

(04:14):
a move up the left side, lips on lips action,
t D from America.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
D T B on America have given you a new nickname, Ben.
I don't know if you see there below, I am
dubbing you Hogan Hoe Rogan. You are the Joe Rogan
of hookups, my friend. I love it, but hey, I
subscribe to that. It's so funny. It's like a lot
of people would say, well, Johnny obviously doesn't have to
play by the same rules as maybe a new rookie does,

(04:42):
or even a vet that doesn't have the same standing
as mister Bananas here who has.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Of course, we know is the challenge.

Speaker 1 (04:48):
But that's how I when Derek and I always get
into should we shouldn't we kind of things, I go,
if anyone ever says anything, you can just go but
he did it, or you know, but he said it
and whatnot. So that's actually You're only four episodes into
your first season. You've already kind of figured out the
magic sauce to playing this wild game that really has
no rules, which is if Johnny does it, it's fair game.

(05:09):
All's fair in love, war, taxes, death, and Johnny bananas.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
I'm a do first, apologize later kind of guy. If
there's any blowback, then hey, you know, my thinking in
the moment was justified, solid, and when new information comes
to light, I'm the first person to say I was wrong,
let's correct that. But in the moment, you know, you
got to take advantage of it. It's like it's like news.
You know, it's breaking news. You can't wait until next week.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
You are you?

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Honestly you've come in, As Derek said, Guns of Blazon.
You promote the show in a myriad of ways. You're
constantly talking about what happened on the show or in
the America case, off the show. But you're building buzz.
You're out there getting into back and forth with the
Sydneys and the Rogans of the world and whatnot, which,
as we know in this challenge world, is job security.
Sometimes one of these rivalries that leads to a future

(05:57):
partnership on the show starts on Twitter can start on
the show. But you're I would imagine, is exactly what
they want as far as like the participation after the
cameras stop rolling, But you're not the like what I
would say with essential casting choice as far as b
and look when the last five to ten seasons, we've
had people from you know, America's got talent. We have

(06:20):
Gabe who is a WWE superstar. You know, we had
Leo Rush who legitimately was a ww superstar. Come over,
Lolo Jones. It's not necessarily you have to be on
Love Island or are you either one or what have you?

Speaker 4 (06:33):
Typically?

Speaker 1 (06:34):
But well, like we we do love getting people's casting story,
but I almost want to get your life casting story
because as Derek mentioned, you've been you've been doing the
MMA commentary. You I believe have have a mixed martial
arts combat sports background before that as well. I've seen
clips of you fighting, I believe on social media today.
So so walk us through this life path that then

(06:55):
led you to the challenge. But I also want to
know how it led you to the world of mixed
Marshall Arts because I follow you as you talk about
that sport too. And I want to go down a
whole rabbit hole of conversations with that, because you're also
not the atypical supporter of that world and that sport
these days. Don't even I don't even consider myself that anymore.

(07:16):
I've I've wrestled with my relationship with this company. You
have se in this sport so long, and I see
you out there on the battle lines every day doing that.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
So walk us through how you became.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
You know, at first you know a fighter and athlete,
then a commentator, and then a challenger.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Sure, sure, So it really got going when I was
doing my undergrad at ASU. I was studying finance, and
before college I was really creatively engineered. They did improv
for many years. Was in theater. Nothing athletic though right
I did freshman year football. Was third string linebacker and
was god awful on the field. I led the team

(07:52):
funnily enough in fumble recoveries, which is the most right place,
right time statistic ever. Wow, And thankfully hell that was
I think a common trend in a lot of ways
as the years progressed, because midway through my finance degree,
I just realized I fucking hated finance all the extracurriculars
that I was doing at ASU in the clubs wasn't

(08:14):
really satisfying. The curriculum itself was leaving a lot to
be desired. The internships I had, I was like, dude,
I mean this is just nothing is scratching, you know
what I mean. And I feel like I'm just spinning
the gears, wasting time and it's not how I want
to live my life. So midway through junior year, I
was like, all right, look, I need to pivot. I
need to transition out of this somehow, and started putting

(08:36):
a lot of eggs in the combat sports space, just
in the sense of content creation media online dming fighters
to get interviews with them and then put those clips out.
That led to some connections with a couple outlets which
enabled me to go on site, do some reporting, show
up to the media days, the press conferences, all of
that boring you know whatnot. And then after realizing that

(08:58):
the reporting side of it wasn't where I wanted to
butter the bread, that evolved greatly into the broadcasting side
because of you know, a great network. And that's initially
what led to the challenge is I was doing a
show in Pouquette Thailand last year called Fight Circus, which
is this like variety style entertainment show. If you haven't
seen it, highly encourage it. They do shit as wacky

(09:19):
as putting a literal phone booth inside a boxing ring
and having people fighting in the phone booth, you know,
if you know the term phone booth fighting from combat.
And the guy that they brought in to direct that
show in March of last year had a big background
in reality TV. He'd created a couple of big shows
and we hit it off really great connection. Loved working

(09:39):
with him. I was on a phone call with him
probably a week after the show had ended, and we
were just kind of debriefing and breaking down, you know,
what was good, what was bad, and the topic of
his past, you know, shows came up and we're talking
about reality TV and I just kind of offhandedly asked, like,
you know, how does somebody get on these shows? Like
what does the casting process kind of look like outside
of the show up to a line of three thousand

(10:02):
and prey at an open audition, and he was like, well,
which one would you want to go on? Theoretically? And
I had I'd never been a big reality TV guy.
You know, I had watched The Biggest Loser growing up.
That was like the main show, the main show. I

(10:22):
thought that was it. I thought everything in reality TV
was like The Biggest Loser. And then a couple of
years back, I'd seen season twenty four, which is Rivals
too of the Challenge, right, and that just like stuck
in my mind because it was a fantastic season and
I'd never picked up the show in more ways than
just like TikTok clips or YouTube highlights, right. But when
I was talking to him and he was like, which

(10:44):
one would you want to go on? The challenge just
popped in my mind. I was like, well, that one
seems cool, and he's like, that's crazy. He said that
I know the casting director, she worked with me on
one of my shows for many years. Let me just
give her a call and see where they're at in
their casting process for next year. And this was I
mean this was March of twenty twenty four. In mid July,
I get a DM from the casting director and she
was like, Hey, I'd love to chat with you about,

(11:05):
you know, an opportunity. Let me know when you're free
for a phone call. We have a phone call. It
goes really well. I felt good connection and she's amazing.
And that led to from like mid July to mid December,
a whole process of setting in on audition tape, going
doing the medical evals of psyche vowls, the physicals, and
then mid December they were like, yeah, You're You're on
the show. This whole time, I was expecting them to

(11:26):
be like, we're going a different direction, or you know,
we appreciate your time, but you're just not really cut
out for what we're looking for. That was my expectation.
I did not think I was gonna get on because
to your guys's you know, points of knowledge, I really
am not a usual person that I think floats onto
this cast. I don't have another show that I came from.
I maybe don't have like the most sizable fan base online, right.

(11:50):
So it's like, when I think people look for what
are the justifiable reasons for Ben getting cast, I think
most people would be like, we don't know, we don't have.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
Any but great great Twitter presence.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
But that's the thing is I have. I do try
and be engaged as much as I can, and I've
had a couple of weird opportunities bare knuckle boxing, fighting,
Anderson Silva's kid and the sports broadcasting work. I do like,
I think there was enough sauce on the bone to
make it make sense. But I do agree with a
lot of the criticism that I've seen about me, which
is why the fuck is this guy here? I'm like,

(12:24):
that's the correct take.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Well, it's interesting because what I love the most about
you is that like you're not like an easy to peg,
You're like an onion, Like you unravel in many different ways,
whereas like you sort of present one way, then you're
associated with this world. I would say combat sports, boxing,
mixed martial arts has kind of a bit of a

(12:47):
I would say, chauvinistic rap and whatnot. You don't necessarily
and don't take this the wrong way, look like an
intimidating athlete as far as like, oh oh they got
a guy from Desonne and co bare knuckle boxing.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
Boxer watch out Like no, it's like.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
The scene in the comedy where it's like, oh, there's
a spy in there whatever and everyone looks at the
you know, everyone would look at Jeremy and assume, Jeremy,
you must be the guy who fights in caves and
shit like that and then no, it's you, you know.
And then also you have this added layer to you
where he.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
Does have the fight club build, doesn't he like from.

Speaker 6 (13:20):
The movie, Like the guys they're beating each other up,
just came from the office, hates their job, they're put
they're fucking in their bare knuckle boxing in a basement
and hugging it out, fucking.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
Making out with each other afterwards. And I'm skinned. I
don't know about that part, but you know what.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
I mean, that's the director's kind of fight cluff is
the Gay America story.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
You Also, it's like you managed to do what I
would call like this level of I don't want to
call it shit talking, but it's definitely pot stirring, but
in a very professional way like we're used to seeing,
I mean, what we try to do on the podcast,
and what Johnny does to a certain extent, and you know,
and even Devin and Davon and whatnot. When you're talking

(14:02):
about the show, just because you're presenting a product, it
ends up being a version of professional And the majority
of the shit talking you see between cast members comes
with itchy Twitter fingers, usually a couple of Margarita's or
like a really sloshy live that they delete the next day.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Whereas you're kind of the best of both worlds.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
You're out there kind of you know, tweeting as it goes,
responding to either the haters or the other cast members,
doing your own podcast, appearing on others, and you're doing
it again in that very you know, broadcast journalism based way,
and we don't really normally see that from especially rookies.
That level of polish doesn't normally come with the rookie

(14:40):
I will say that. So that's another layer to you.
And then something that hasn't really appeared on the show
yet I don't think is that you are openly bisexual.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
You wave that flag.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
I've seen you doing it through the through the thick
of the mud of the MMA community and getting mud
thrown at you for doing so.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
And this show.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
I know you said you hopped in on CS twenty four,
but the Challenge, which was an offshoot of the Real
Worlds and road Rules and these were really really the
documentary series pioneers of putting that kind of representation on
TV to begin with. Like, there were literally cast members
on the Real World that have been mentioned by presidents
in the past and that's you know, Pedro from Real

(15:19):
World San Francisco and things like that, and Rachel and Shane,
and we've had these trailblazers of the community all you know,
every letter on the LGBTQ plus you know, sort of acronym,
and you're a member of that community too, So it's
like you are. It's so funny because you're like, almost
in a way, this perfect casting choice. The only thing
that's missing is that you didn't have a cup of
coffee on like I don't know, Commentary Island or whatever

(15:39):
you would call.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
The show that aired, you know whatever. But it's funny.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
That everyone now you know, pencils you in as being
this person who I don't know, I get why that
guy's here, but four episodes in and just following you
even a few months back when I knew you were
gonna be on the show, you seem as well suited
and prepared for this entire process as almost anyone I've
ever seen it.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
It's a first off, get me on Commentary Island. That's
the next show I gotta do now. But to your point,
like I think I was able to really find ways
to emerge and make it make sense and I've always
had this eye to try and maximize opportunities as much
as possible. I think that, you know, if you're going
to do something, don't have asset, try and give it

(16:20):
one hundred and ten percent. And I recognized pretty quickly,
you know, as this season progresses and the way that
I was playing the game, that I'm not going to
be in the episodes to an extreme degree. Right, there
is a lot more compelling things than Ben's bad dancing
at the clubs or you know, the dumb jokes I
would I'd be making and playing pool, Like I figured
that I was going to be wallpaper, and so that

(16:41):
added more onus on me in the you know, post
filming period to gas it up on platforms and market
it as effectively as I can and try and be
a big player as the episodes are rolling out, just
because I recognize, like, Okay, maybe the way that I
attempted this first season wasn't going to result in a
lot of screen time. Therefore, how can I capture this

(17:03):
better be a better, more engaged member on socials.

Speaker 5 (17:09):
Yeah, it's uh, something I really wasn't thinking about, like
when I went through the whole process. Obviously, like you're
twenty five years old. I'm forty two. Like social media
was just kind of breaking the ice as I was,
you know, breaking away in some ways from the franchise.

(17:29):
But uh, you know one thing that I and noticed
you mentioned is just like all the parallels this has
to like me and Scott, you know, right place, at
the right time, the fumble recoveries.

Speaker 4 (17:39):
Scott used to do the Scott used to I.

Speaker 5 (17:43):
Used to want to do what Scott did, and was
interview UFC fighters.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
And it wasn't just UFC fighters.

Speaker 5 (17:49):
Like he tell what would you you you'd interview like
be listening actors and.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
Like, oh he is generous as well.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
No, but would it would go up to be it
would be a bee?

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (18:02):
No, No, So what Derek saying you So the reason,
the reason our paths crossed about fifteen years ago, we
were both very early to podcasting, right, so you know
you're at the ripe age twenty five of when you're
coming up. I'd imagine college things like that. Podcasting is
probably a word they're using in journalism school and in colleges.
It literally didn't exist when I went to school. So

(18:23):
I was a film major in college. Derek was on TV.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
While I was in college.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
I was in college going to film class and then
coming home to watch Derek fight people on the Challenge,
and then coming out of the coming out of college,
I did start to listen to podcasts. Joe Rogan was
one of them, Madam Corolla, Bill Simmons, things like that,
and I wanted to start my own and I thought, oh,
I'll be the next guy who interviews famous people, and
I'm such a good interview where people just want to
listen to me talk. So I came up with this

(18:48):
show called A Shot of Yeager, and I used a
position I had at a magazine in Connecticut to get
all these interviews with famous people because anyone who came
through Connecticut for anything, they would have to do press,
and really the press was supposed to be the magazine,
but I would say the publicist last minute. I would say, Hey,
since I'm recording it anyway, can I put it up
as a podcast.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
And they would all say yes.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
I'd be like, hey, we could promote all the dates
instead of just New Haven whatever. Back then, they didn't
know what a podcast was either, so they all just
said yes. Now there's a whole different department and what
podcast you go on is almost they care more about
that than what silly little magazine they're going to do.
So the idea that they would let their big client
go on a podcast that three hundred people were listening

(19:26):
to that he was doing out of his mom's basement
in Stanford, Connecticut is absurd.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
But they were letting me and then from there.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
Because I was a huge fan of MMA, I did
a spinoff called Kicking and Streaming. I would have this
before he became the voice of the UFC, but John Annick,
when he was at ESPN, he used to come on
like every few months. I would just hit up you
know fighters on Twitter, things like that, I got credentialed
from the UFC. I would fly myself to events at
Cage Side. I'd be there earlier than THEO Vaughn. And
during this time I get an email from Hello, this

(19:55):
is Derek from The Challenge. I would be doing shows
the line so Derek was doing. Derek was doing something
he didn't even have the word for. He was calling
it Ultimate Challenge Radio because again, the word podcast was
not even in the lexicon. And then he hits me
up and says, hey, I'm doing something similar. We have
a mutual friend. One of his good friends from high
school was one of my mentors and TV production and things.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
He goes, would you want to have me on your podcast?
So I had him on the.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
Podcast and he's like, hey, man, I saw it last
week he interviewed Kenny Floorian, like I would love to
do that, Like how do you get those interviews? And
I said, well, you know, next week I'm interviewing Jake Shields.
Do you want to do that with me?

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Now? I didn't know Jake Shields was going to evolve
into this crazy lunatic.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
He's a shit dude. No, And back then I really
liked the guy I met. I met him several times,
interviewed him sveral times. I would have never pegged him. Honestly,
if you put a gun in my head in twenty
ten and said Gray Maynard or Jake Shields, which one's
going to be the piece of shit in fifteen years
and which one's going to align.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
With your values?

Speaker 1 (20:46):
I would have said I would have bet on Gray
Maynard being the piece of shit. Jake Shields and argument
and now everything that comes out of Jake Shields's mouth,
I want to run in front of traffic but anyway,
long story short. In twenty ten, Derek and I interviewed
Jake Shields right after he fought GSP or before he
fought gs and the biggest UFC.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Fight of all time.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Derek loved the idea of, Hey, I'm finally getting to
talk to someone who's not on the Challenge. And then
we kind of went our separate ways. I went back
to working in television. He went back to work in
the oil fields, got out of reality TV for a
few years because again, no money was coming in. The
average person didn't know what a podcast was. The average

(21:26):
person didn't know what a podcast was. Cut to twenty seventeen,
he gets back on the challenge, comes in second place,
gets home, wants to start a podcast.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
He starts looking through his phone. He's like, who would
know how to do a podcast?

Speaker 1 (21:36):
He hits me up, and at the time the difference
was this we started it and I realized, Hey, us
interviewing random famous people and seeing what sticks is not
the way to do it. Let's only talk about the challenge.
There's a milliono point five people who watch it every week.
If we can get twenty percent of them, we'll be
sitting pretty and here we are eight years later and
we're still doing this crap.

Speaker 5 (21:53):
So and the first ever, the first ever Challenge Mania sticker.
Our logo was like the old school WrestleMania. Oh yeah,
like logo, except Challenge Mania. I just pulled a bunch
out of my glove compartment yesterday because my son was
using the car. It's a good one to uh pass
the driver's life, so I to pull everything out just

(22:15):
the case it has for like driver's license insurn.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
But MMA and play a weird part of story.

Speaker 5 (22:21):
No, this isn't mine, and this is like the like
one of the like, I don't have that many people
that like I hit up and I'm like, hey, this
UFC thing is happening. This fighter is fighting like this
and I hit him up the other day. And ironically enough,
I'm trying to get a few Challenge people involved with

(22:43):
Misfits boxing for a future event that I've put Ben
in contact with, and hopefully that happens at some point.
But like, yes, what Scott is saying, what we're saying
is like there really hasn't been a guy like you
on the Challenge. We don't know how long a guy
like you, how much you know, time you will have

(23:05):
on this on this you know, in the universe, because
like you don't kind of fit everything right, like neither
do I.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
Neither do I. I never did.

Speaker 5 (23:15):
I was like, like I thought, the reason why they
this is what I would say to them when I
went through my casting process. You're never gonna pick me
anyway because I'm not tall, dark and handsome.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
Okay, and fuck.

Speaker 5 (23:27):
Here I am twenty years later and uh sorry, we're
gonna stop rambling and let you talk. But like I do,
by the way, you're a fresh air to have someone
like like Ben into the community.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
How so you said you're twenty five five? Yeah, so
what you're you were born in two thousand.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
No, I'm in ninety nine. I snuck in the nineties, kid.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Uh so you were born in ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
The first UFC show I ever went to is UFC
thirty two Showdown in the Meadowlands in June twenty ninth,
two thousand and one. So when so I watch I've
been attending ufcs since when you were two years old,
and I've been watching I mean probably Derek too. I've
been watching UFC since before you're born. But it's crazy,
the ebbs and flows of this sport. It's now probably one,
especially among young people, probably like one of the most

(24:12):
relevant sports. I just saw that. If you compare the
TV deal they just signed, where it's, you know whatever,
it is one point five billion a year or something
like that. The Major League Baseball just signed one and
it's I think two hundred million a year. So it
is now, I mean, what is it seven times bigger
than baseball, which is supposed to be America's past time.

Speaker 2 (24:32):
So it is a very relevant sport.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
But I think it's it's so funny that it's like this,
this very complicated sport to cover, be a part of,
be a fan of.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
You out a tweet the other day.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
I was trying to look up I forget exactly how
you worded it, so I'd love to hear you expand
on it.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
But you know, it is like, it's funny.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
I would love to compare and contrast it to this
world of reality TV, because I would say reality TV
is among the most stringent worlds as far as like
you come in, even with a little microaggression that makes
it seem like you have anything against anyone of a
certain race, sexuality, whatever.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
The reality TV fan base will pounce on you. They
will make sure you are never cast again, and they
will ruin your life. Flash forward to on the MMA community.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
As you said, it's this sport where it's almost celebrated,
especially not shunned.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
It is often rewarded.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
So talk about that, and you know, if you don't
mind kind of like, you know, paraphrasing the tweet you
had the other day because it stood out to me
someone who I see, like yourself, who loves this sport
so much and is such a big part of it,
but obviously has such a complicated relationship with it because
of that.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
For sure, the exact tweet, and this was a couple
teets that it sent out, but the main one was quote,
it's crazy how MMA is the only sport where you
can say slurs, be openly bigoted, and be applauded for it,
like the absolute bottom of the barrel when it comes
to standards. And I did spell comes wrong, which is
kind of ironic, but yeah, you know, it's it's just unfortunate.

(25:56):
I think that as the decades have gone by in
the UF these life cycle, there's just been gradually more
and more lean into this percentage of the fan base
and that's a product of you know, their I don't
want to get insanely political because it's more just an observation,
not necessarily like a opinion or a condemning of it,

(26:17):
because I get the importance of befriending the president, you know,
and there's such a storied history between Dana White and
Donald Trump back in the day, Trump hosting UFC events
at his hotels to help them, you know, with their
expenses and whatnot. Like I get it. You know, it's
networking and they're leveraging their network. That is what everybody does. Unfortunately,

(26:37):
I think it's drawn in a wave of fans that
are more attached to the political side of it than
the actual in cage action or the fighters and the roster.
And to me, that how divorced it's become just makes
it more toxic for everybody. I mean, that side of
the fan base included, you know. And it's it's tricky

(26:59):
because like I never really speak about my sexuality in
a lot of places, mostly because there's no relevance. Like
if I'm doing sports broadcasting work, my objective is to
do sports broadcasting and commit play by play, and there
really isn't much like of me that needs to be
put in there. You know, I don't want to ever.

(27:19):
You know, there's this whole stigma from a lot of
people where it's like, oh, you're shoving agendas and this
and that, and I make it. I make a very
conscious effort to not do that. I when I speak
about my sexuality, it's never in the sense of like
forcing it on anybody. It's more of just here's my experience,
here's what I represent. Feel entitled to disagree, and I'll
feel entitled to say you're incorrect, and then we are

(27:42):
separate ways.

Speaker 5 (27:43):
Yeah, but yeah, but is it I feel like and
I get the political side of like where Dana White
stands and where Donald Trump stands obviously, but isn't UFC
still kind of like for everybody?

Speaker 4 (27:55):
Am I?

Speaker 2 (27:56):
You know? Am I?

Speaker 4 (27:57):
You know what I'm saying, Like, is is it.

Speaker 5 (27:59):
Like, look, we're about to be everybody, whether you like
it or not, because you know, Paramount just just signed
with the UFC and we are Paramount. The challenge is
is Paramount Paramount plus or whatever whatever we're gonna turn into.
So it's like it's it's like whereas what maybe some
people thought, you know, like CBS it seems like very

(28:22):
much the other side of Trump. I mean, you get
the whole Comedy Central stuff, you know, shit talking making
fun of Trump and stuff like that. Like I feel
like still in some ways like UFC is for bad.

Speaker 4 (28:35):
I don't I don't know.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
I think, I think, but here's here's we gotta separate. Okay.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
So I think when people dumb it down to it's
only about Trump, right, okay, which which again I think
that's what he was trying to say, is that politics
Trump whatever is whatever.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
If you are saying, hey, I can't watch the UFC
because when Trump walks into an arena UFC, everybody cheers,
and it's like bizarro world because at you know, nine
hour hours of the day you're watching a channel that
shits on Trump, then that's your problem. But if you're
saying I can't watch the UFC because Sean Strickland and
Kolby Covington and fighter x y or Z spends his
entire day on Twitter or in interviews shitting on people

(29:11):
like me or people like my friend or my neighbor
or whomever, and it seems like people are rooting for
them because of it. That's where I think It's like
the thing about the UFC, which I think, like, for instance,
if you were to compare it to another sport, you know,
does it matter how good you are at filling the blank, basketball, football, whatever,

(29:31):
If you are putting out, you know, hate into the world,
the league is going to reprimand you, or in essence
at least put their foot down or make it clear
they don't stand beside you.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
In that regard.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
With the UFC, it feels as if not only do
they not do that, they in a way almost by
not saying anything at all, it's kind of wink, wink, nod, nod,
we agree. And that's the part that I think is
when you say is it for everyone? I would say
I hope so. But if it is, maybe do a
little better to make people feel that way. And this
is coming from somebody who loves the sport and the company.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
And then you know, it's because it's like the globality
of martial arts. Everybody can relate to the story of
a kid being bullied, finding a karate studio and then
embracing the community within it. The discipline, the hard work
that comes with training any type of combat sport like
that is a universal story. Everybody should be involved in
some type of way with martial arts because I think

(30:25):
of what it can the value can bring to somebody. Right,
that's the important part I think that gets lost to
your point, Derek, And I don't know. I think that
like if some people watch these fighters and they dislike
the huge insurgence of their beliefs and whatnot and how
celebrated some of that bullshit is, and they say this
support isn't for me, all well and good, all well

(30:47):
and good, Like if you feel alienated from something that
you're entitled to feel that way, basically, right, And I
do agree that there is a level of decency that
isn't applied to maybe the rhetoric behaviors and.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
The comments on that tweet you just read.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Like I went down and started reading the comments and
the responses you're getting and the audacity that people and
then you click on the profiles. It's not even someone
like behind me, hiding behind an eggshell, Like, no, these
are people who like have pictures of them and their
kids and they're feeling great, just telling you the most
hurtful and hateful stuff in the world, assuming a million
things about you that aren't even true.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
But also just because.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
You made that point, right, like, that's that's how mad
and weaponized they are about that and the hateful rhetoric
they use to talk to you. I mean, it's like
it's the other side of the coin with the reality,
the other side of the coin with the reality world,

(31:43):
you know, And which is why I think I would
love to know the contrast of how having been a
part of this world and how both accepting it is
and sometimes even like almost overly cautious or overly policing
it can be about things like that and kind of
experiencing both at once. Because when I watched you go
through that last week, I was just like, man, that's terrible.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Well it's terrible, but it's part of the course. It
happens all the time. The amount of the hate messages
and people telling me to kill myself and homophobic slurs
and all that, I get it. Yeah, I mean that's
just the Bendeves experience these days. But to your point,
it is very cool to have this difference in the communities, right.
I think there's pros and cons to both. The reality
TV world is far more progressive accepting, I would say,

(32:25):
in tune with maybe more of the beliefs that I hold,
but there is kind of this over I don't want
to say overly attached nature sometimes, but like people get
really invested in the reality TV world and that leads
to them feeling you know, huge peaks and spikes emotionally,
and that pours out online and you know, like, what's

(32:47):
been going on the last twenty four hours of this
whole America nonsense and when it was you know, maybe
brought to the court of public opinion several months back
during filming, right It just that level of toxicity is
different in its own way than the toxicity in the
MMA community, where it's much more I would say, fueled
by this this current political landscape and I don't know,

(33:09):
anti progressive in a lot of ways.

Speaker 5 (33:11):
Well, but that's why I played that clip, is like
because it kind of it kind of it it's it's
it's uh, it covers all sides of this, right, Like
she's doesn't sound like she's I don't even.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
Know she promotes the show. I'll be honest, I don't.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
I don't know why this is why? Right, Like this
is what like it?

Speaker 5 (33:31):
But yeah, but like you know, it's either like are
they going to show that like did.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
They already did not?

Speaker 1 (33:37):
They showed enough of it in the trailer that there's
enough smoke to the fire and clearly everyone's talking about it.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (33:44):
But I mean like as far as like the whole
night goes, you know, like are there is this not
going to be a part of of the show. Yeah,
I mean, did Johnny overstep? But I think what you
the way you articulated what happened there. You're obviously on
that bus you saw some more than other people didn't
that Johnny didn't mention. Oh okay, you know, and and yeah,

(34:07):
and so it's like, you know.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Let's go to this question.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
It's not go ahead, we got we got a question
from challengemaniacs dot com. If you ever want to uh
ask a question on the podcast, go to challengemaniacs dot
com And that's where you can get a direct line
of being a part of the show. It's also where
you can watch full video of all the episodes. Wanda says, Ben,
you're the most recent cast member to come out about
America's escapades on the show. Care to expand on it?

(34:33):
And why do you think so many people care? So
that second part is what I really want to get
to because so many people, you guys, Johnny, Zach, whoever's
bringing it up. But also the Internet is just a
flutter with this. It's like, you know, give me more,
give me more. You know, I haven't you know, seen
people care about America this much since January sixth.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
I'm kidding, Okay, go ahead, No, I.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Think I think what really fueled this is obviously the
clash between some fan bases a couple of months ago
when maybe this leaked out to the public that there
was something going on in the house involving America and
making out with a couple other people, and this huge
faction that disagreed vehemently and we're like, no, that that's
just not possible. And then that was questioning the integrity
of some people's opinion, going hey, I don't lie, I

(35:16):
don't make up bullshit. You know, I'm just bringing to
you what was brought to me, and that I do
remember seeing that whole battle, and now we're getting a
second serving of it when this does come out. And
obviously Johnny led the charge on elaborating what was seen
in the trailer and what had gone down after that
Mays Sudoku challenge, and I mean, I don't really care

(35:38):
to expand upon it much more than what I've said.
I mean, I think I said everything that I could.
I just call it like I see it. I call
it like I see it. Was this CT stuff based
in reality, I don't think so. I didn't see anything
that would corroborate that. I don't I didn't talk to
anybody in the house the day after that mentioned I
saw this. I witnessed this. Nobody witnessed it, but yet

(36:00):
they believed it, and they felt that that was a
fact that she was making goes at CT and trying
to initiate something with him.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
So did the America fans in a way bring this
on not just themselves, but on America unintentionally by and again,
part of this is bleeding into you know, what we
don't necessarily talk about in real time on the show,
which is the kind of spoiler territory. But what you're
alluding to is as the show was either filming or
shortly thereafter, the spoiler accounts were leaking that hey, there

(36:29):
was a knight that America got a little crazy, or
America may have been unfaithful and the Big Brother faithful.
The America and Corey faithful attack the spoilers and their
credibility and this and that, which hey, is there no
worse things scorned than a spoiler account scorned. And so
I think that, and Johnny knows that, to be honest
with you, there's no better promoter of a podcast like

(36:50):
Death Taxes and Bananas or this one than when one
of them organically reposts one of our clips, but does
so through the guise of, you know, it's for their benefit,
not us, Like, you know, the these type of accounts,
these type of accounts have to sort of be contrarian
by nature. It's like so it's very like, you know,
entertainment news, you know, whatever you want to call, the
sort of Fox.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Newsification of the world.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
And that like the show is the bad guy, the
podcasts are the bad guy. We're the inside scoopers, you
and you know, the fans and us, we're the ones
who really are out for the real truth of the world.
So that when someone spills the beans about something crazy
on one of our shows and they promote it, that's
a way that people who don't even like Derek and
myself might find one of our clips, or find one
of Johnny's clips. So I think Johnny knew what he

(37:31):
was doing when he went down that rabbit hole. I
think Zach did too, actually, because it's something that the
Internet has wanted clarification on. And it's also something that
the spoiler accounts who are very vocal and have huge
they have bigger follower accounts than us, To be honest
with you, at least myself, and they he knows it's
something that they would want to attach themselves to. So

(37:52):
I wonder like these fans of America who blindly just
thought there's no way she could do something like that.
By attacking all these accounts, are they now creating this
world where she can't wake up without getting pinging? Bring
bring about some wacky nights she had that probably would
have been swept under the rug four months ago had
they not made a bigs think about. I can't believe
she did that. So it kind of sucks that they

(38:13):
kind of did this to her.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
If you asked me, Yeah, the biggest loser in this
is America. I think in a lot of ways, she
and I had nothing but positive interactions in the house.
In fact, I really enjoyed all the times that I
talked to her. She had an interesting perspective. It's such
a huge reality TV fan, and that to me was
obvious when we were filming, because she was jazzed to
be there. I mean, she enjoyed a lot of the
daily challenges like yet that that hasn't really been shown,

(38:36):
and obviously she hasn't been promoting the season. But like,
I didn't get the sense in the house that she
was having the worst time ever after this night. I
think she was a little bit like, man, I fucked up.
I made some bad calls, but everybody makes poor decisions.
That's just part of the game. And I think it's
okay to state that right and be transparent and be like,
you know, what fucked up here, But that doesn't condone

(38:58):
or support that targeted harassment that maybe has been going
on because of the product of this, these two fandoms clashing.
So I don't know, I don't I think I said
this yesterday. I think everything has just been inflated out
of control a bit, and it's unfortunate, and you know,
I don't wish any ill will on her, Corey anyone else, right,

(39:19):
But at the same time, I'm gonna call it like
I see it, and if other cast members are speaking
about this, providing their perspectives, and then if I provide
my perspective and I just don't even touch on it
at all, then people are gonna go Ben's not trustworthy.
Ben's not disclosing, you know, as much as as there was.
And I'm sorry, but I am nothing if not honest
most times.

Speaker 5 (39:39):
So let me tell you what I saw that night, Okay,
to kind of make it a little bit more clear
for everybody. Now again, I'm thinking that they may still
show this, so we might be getting in trouble for this.
I don't know, but I feel like Johnny's seen a
few episodes and that he feels safe to him disclose
this information and that it's not going to be shown
that night.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
That Rookie bus was a rocking the one I'm talking about.

Speaker 5 (40:03):
We have a Vet bus and we have a Rookie bus,
and that Rookie bus the music was jamming. You guys
must have had the radio that worked, and the bus
was literally shaking, rocking back and forth. They were jamming
out and and I'm assuming that this is the night
where d and in America made out. We got the

(40:25):
kiss on in the previews. It's been been going around
but what we what.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
We didn't see? What didn't we see that night? What what?
What else was going on on that bus that night?

Speaker 3 (40:38):
It was Yeah, there was the makeout with American d
she did as Carra set on TikTok. America made out
with Tay as well, and America was trying to kiss
Leo a little bit, and again, like I said, to
his credit, was like, no, I'm all good. Me and
yeer Me were sitting directly in front of America, and
I do remember right, she would like lean on the

(40:59):
chairs and she was like, do you guys want a kiss?
And we were both like no, We're okay. But that's
that was, you know, the basic wildness of what was
going down. And then back in the house like Olivia
sitting her down after she had you know again, I
I don't know if you saw this, but from what

(41:22):
I had heard and then seen the aftermath of was
Olivia getting mad. It's something America had done to Theo
and then sitting her down for quite the lengthy conversation.
And this is how I recall it. Everybody in the
fucking house was watching that conversation right like they were
in the gym. They were in Johnny and Jerremi's room

(41:43):
watching it. They were near me, Gabe and Jake's room
watching it take place over on the balcony. I remember
looking around and seeing fucking everybody watching this. So if
that might have been something that wasn't shown. Is is
Olivia kind of bringing her back to reality a little bit,
which was you know, credit? So that might have been

(42:06):
something that wasn't shown. Is is Olivia kind of bringing
her back to reality a little bit, which was you know,
credit to her?

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (42:11):
And maybe that was it? And this is kind of
how I now.

Speaker 5 (42:15):
I'm glad that you clarified that there wasn't kissing with
any dudes, because I think that that was the the
gray area. I think that that was the the unknown, right, Well, we.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
Don't know, We don't know.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Some people, like some people might a lot, You might
think it's hot to have your girl kiss another girl.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Some people might just think kissing anyone even I'm.

Speaker 5 (42:35):
Saying, Well, what I'm getting to here is is exactly
that from my understanding what I heard that for America
that kissing girls was fair game, just no kissing guys.
So you know, she may be okay with all of
this and her man might be okay with all of this.
I don't know obviously, like I, and again you said

(42:56):
that she on TikTok America said that she made out
with Heay.

Speaker 4 (42:59):
Is that what you said?

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Cara had put up a a comment that had said
she'd also kissed Tay on the bus, which, because I
do remember her making out with another person, that's not
d But yeah, I don't know the whole CT stuff like.
This is where it got confused from me is in
the morning, what I had heard was someone thought it'd

(43:20):
be funny to tell her that she tried to hook
up with CT because she didn't really recall the night, right,
And so someone was like, yeah, that'd be a funny
joke to play in America, like ha ha, you were
trying to make out with CT as well. And then
that the game of telephone, as it does in the house, right,
just became fact in some people's opinions, right, And so
they were like, yeah, she tried to do that too,
How could she? I don't know what your side of

(43:44):
that was what you would heard the next day regarding
the CT stuff.

Speaker 5 (43:47):
I I I I heard, I heard. This is this
is where I don't like to talk about the ship,
you know, I mean, this is where this is where,
this is where I go.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
Is no, I'm asking the leading questions on you.

Speaker 5 (43:58):
This is where I go. Okay, Uh, someone else said it.
I she would rather not get involved in all this
because there's.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Another guy who's a part of this story and he's
also in something, and that person doesn't like any of
this stuff. So yeah, even if it was just someone
trying it was some trying to get with him, I
don't think she would like to hear that, right.

Speaker 5 (44:22):
Yeah, but I think in the end for her sake,
like she didn't kiss any dudes and it was just girls,
and if that's okay with him, then hopefully their relationships
stay stays, stay stable.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
You know, clearly they're fine. I mean they're they're doing
the Big Brother streams, they're doing a ton of content together.
Just move to Boston. Like, if there was something in
the relationship that wasn't uh copasetic with this, then you know,
maybe there would be a sign. But clearly they're good.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
They feel good, and part of being good is probably,
as we've discussed at length, not necessarily diving into this
world every week by coming on podcasts and tweeting about
the live tweeting the show and whatnot, and she's probably
just kind of put it in her rear view and
and goes, Okay, I'm gonna live in the present with you,
like you said, focus on big Brother things like that,
because in this challenge world, you know, this is you know,

(45:11):
for better or for worse, what a lot of the
fans can hang their hat on and want to talk about.
There are people like there's this guy Jay who didn't
drink milk in a final fifteen years ago and he
could win three challenges and the first thing someone's gonna
say to them on the street is you didn't drink
the milk. And so the same thing with America is
like she could go on to win this season literally,
and if she does, people are still gonna be like, yeah,
but uh, what happened with you and all those guys

(45:32):
that night. So it just happens to be that thing
that even before the show started airing, she's getting the
DMS about, And so she's probably like, fuck this show,
fuck this fan base.

Speaker 4 (45:40):
I'm not you know that? Is that what it seems like?

Speaker 5 (45:42):
Though, Like Ben, I don't know if you've talked to
her or you've observed anymore.

Speaker 4 (45:46):
But like, I think I started following her kind of late.

Speaker 5 (45:50):
And I just I don't see anything. I don't see
anything from her, you know, promoting the challenge. Obviously that
means that like there's a bad taste in her mouth somewhere.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
And let me tell you when we.

Speaker 5 (46:03):
Went through that, you guys did that whole interview process
with with TJ, like they're they're the one person that
said the most words. If there was a competition of
who says the most words in the interview chair, it
was her And it was out of like excitement to
be there on the Challenge as a big fan. She
went and binged all of these shows and she was

(46:25):
so excited. So it's so sad for me to like
hear that she's like gone dark on the Challenge. And
I don't know if that's completely correct, but it you know,
if if if if she got hit by the challenge,
that hard already because the like we were saying, you
get some you get some tweets that come your way
that are just like egregious people get run off of Twitter, man,

(46:49):
they don't come back.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Because let me ask you, guys, speaking of taking a
break from the challenge, which you know might be America's
doing that someone just brought to my attention. I wonder
if either of you have heard any rumblings about this
so challenge. Fans who have gone and checked their their
TV guides for weeks in advance have noticed that the
TV guides are showing a three week break between episodes

(47:13):
eight and nine. So episode eight years on Wednesday, September seventeenth,
and then it shows that episode nine right now on
paper doesn't air till Wednesday, October the eighth, meaning that
from you know, those three weeks in between, there won't
be any challenge on. Have you guys heard rumblings of this?
Do you know why this would be or the making
room for some sort of other telecast In your's past,
there's been like, you know, they take a week off

(47:34):
for the MTV Movie Awards or something, and then there's
obviously holiday breaks and things they try to avoid. But
I don't think that they would make room for Yum
Kapor and Russia Shana. So what do you think have
you heard anything about this? Or are these guys is
there's just a glitch and the TV guide and these
people are kind of maybe looking too soon.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
I saw that there was a break scheduled, some people
tweeting about it last night. Unsure if that is, you know,
par for the course, Derek, in the seasons you've had
on what the break typically look like in the programming schedule, don't.
I personally don't understand it. There has to be a reason,
a method to that type of madness. But to me,
it seems that like having consistent week to week distribution

(48:11):
of the episodes is probably the smartest. If you take
three weeks off, that is twenty one days, that irrelevance
can seep in and then boom, there goes the momentum
of the season.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Ooh yeah, so I just so, how about this Survivor
Season forty nine premiere is Wednesday, September twenty fourth at
eight pm. Is it possible they want to give Survivor
a few weeks of runway to premiere without having the
Challenge counterprogramming it. I mean, we've always said it's ridiculous
that the two shows that are so intertwined go against
each other. Is it possible that they're saying, hey, maybe

(48:42):
we kill a little bit of Challenge momentum, send people
over to Survivor and then come back in a big
way with the challenge a few weeks later, once Survivor's
cook in and that audience is already developed, because maybe
I mean, just because the dates line up, I'm wondering,
is it possible it's that.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
I mean, I don't know. I can't think of anything else.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
This is what I can think of. Is like, that
is not good for the show.

Speaker 5 (49:04):
I feel like people just like you stop the show
and it's not there anymore, or you stop promoting it for.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
Uh, you know, two weeks or whatever.

Speaker 5 (49:15):
I just I think there's going there would be a
huge drop off, so it doesn't hopefully it's just hopefully
it's just a blip, you know.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
I did hear viewership is going up, has gone.

Speaker 3 (49:24):
Up big numbers for episode four. I think what half
a million people tuned in, something that eclipsed to a
good amount of episodes in the last couple of seasons.
So it is a big one, big win in episode four,
which was nice and win it daily on that.

Speaker 4 (49:41):
No, this is a big win for big Baby Baine Davis.
By the way, Sudoku Savage, you know we.

Speaker 5 (49:51):
Don't we don't talk about I mean personally like we
didn't talk about this on our Patreon yesterday, Scott, but
I wanted to mention it instead. I talked about how
well I did UH with Diaz, a partner who did
not know anything about Sudoku going into and I had
to literally tell her the rules and and and and
she was just like my assistant basically, and I'm, you know,

(50:11):
deathly afraid of puzzles and sudoku. How are you? How
were you so good at this? Was it Mikhayla? Was
it just the combination of you and Mikhayla? Is this
something that like you you practice at home with that
like for fun, I.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
Learned Sudoku two days prior to that daily challenge, and
obviously I have no quit.

Speaker 5 (50:33):
So we have new threats coming into this game that
learned Sudoku two days prior. And you got a guy
like Johnny Bananas has been doing this for twenty plus years,
over to over twenty seasons, who is just stripping the
board off because you can't get you know, like it
just makes no sense.

Speaker 4 (50:50):
Guys to everyone at home, we have we have.

Speaker 5 (50:53):
Former Marines, multiple former military personnel on the season of
the challenge, and we got a guy that learned sudoku
two days ago and won the Sudoku.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
Challenge because we were trying to burn time in the house, right,
so much of the experience is filling up those off days.
And me and Yeermie had and I think Carr had
realized this as well. On the elliptical you could play sudoku,
and so we were playing sudoku on the elliptical and
then Tay had like a Sudoku book, and so we
took a couple of pages laid out on the sun
beds and just started filling out the puzzles, and multiple

(51:27):
people started coming over and doing the same Izzy Leka.
I think America actually came over as well, and we
were just all filling our afternoon by doing sudoku, unknowing that, okay,
in two days, this is going to be crucially important.
And I remember like getting into that puzzle and we
had no clue obviously that everything was sudoku. I thought
that Mikayl and I ran into the only Sudoku puzzle

(51:50):
and I was like, look at our luck. Everyone else
got something different, but we got sudoku. That's fantastic. Obviously
you know it wasn't the case. But no, like I
think the strategy was for Mikayl and I to really
adopt the roles and stay in our lanes. You know,
she very quickly assumed the driver's seat, and sometimes to
be the best leader, you got to be the best follower.
And I didn't want to step on her toes because
I knew that with something like this a Stoka puzzle,

(52:12):
if there's too many cooks in the kitchen, you're gonna
fuck yourself up, which is exactly what happened to so
many teams. And the last thing I wanted to do
was impact our progress. So I just laid all the
numbers out and then when she asked, I would, you know,
throw it at her. And every time I come up
to give her a number, I'd be like, hey, I
think there's a five here, there's a four here that
looks like an eight could be perfect there. And you know,
as she mentions in the confessional, you know, oh, Ben's

(52:33):
actually not too stupid and gains trust as it goes on,
and you know, thankfully we were able to crush it
and love to work with her inside the challenge. Say that.

Speaker 5 (52:50):
Inside the challenge, I say that, Well, first she was like,
just keep your mouth shut and then she was like, oh, actually,
you know, I kind of trusted him by the end
of it.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
Yeah, and I wish that, Like, I don't know, because
everything fell apart quickly when we got to the bar,
you know, after we come first. I was really jazzed
about getting the eight points, proving I can do something,
because that was the other element for me those first
couple of weeks, and someone you and I spoke about
is like, not only is this an odd casting choice,
but then it's like, I'm kind of struggling in some
of these dailies to assert myself improve where I can excel.

(53:24):
And so it was such an important day for me
and McKayla and I clashing ideologically with what to do
with the power was just it was disappointing in a
lot of ways, and I viewed her as one of
the smarter people in the house and for her to
just latch on to what I felt was a very
bone headed move was I was. I was like, did

(53:45):
you're ruining everything that we just we just did?

Speaker 5 (53:48):
So you guys were beefing, you guys were you guys
were your your minds were clashing at the bar on
who'd have put in against Gabe as the hangnail to
then go in again Johnny bananas like she she seems
like she's got her her her head together as far
as like what she wants to do. She's very anti
Olivia camp Olivia and that alliance. I feel like you're

(54:11):
a little bit more camp Olivia ish.

Speaker 4 (54:16):
Was she just not giving you any names? Was she
just or what?

Speaker 5 (54:20):
Was she trying to make a power move, because we've
seen we saw her get loud in in the deliberation
and say, hey you She didn't say these words, but
something along the lines of, hey you morons, You guys
aren't using your power for what it's supposed to be
used for, which at the beginning, yes, it was a
bonehead move by Johnny to try to save THEO. But

(54:43):
now she's you know, kind of pivoted to uh to
trying to uh, you know, to to trying to.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
Tell Olivia she's making boneheaded moves. So what happened?

Speaker 3 (54:55):
If you're gonna stand up on a soapbox at the
deliberations and like very blak and criticize someone's move, you're
only blowing your own game up. That's stupid, you know,
in some way, shape and form.

Speaker 4 (55:06):
But yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
So we're at the bar and before we even get there,
we kind of talk, and to me, it was so
clear that everybody in the house wanted to vote Gabe
in because of all the nonsense he'd been causing. And
I'm sure you got this too, Like there was a
temperature and the heat was directed right at Gabe. And
so I told her at the beginning of the night,
our job is easy in the sense that we just
need to pick a team that is going to shake

(55:26):
the boat as little as fucking possible. I don't think
this is the time to try and do anything because
everybody wants to throw gave in. And initially she agreed.
Initially she was on board it, and she's like, let's just,
you know, do some reconnaissance. Let's get information out of
people and play this a little safer. And I was like, okay, cool.
As the time goes on, she gets in her head
that there is a move she can make and there

(55:46):
is some power that we can leverage here, which was
to throw THEO on the chopping block and then put
THEO against Johnny in the arena. That was something that
I think Sidney and Leka and her had concocted at
the bar is my assumption wasn't privy to it, right,
And then that's why Mikayla and I got into a
little bit of a squabble and things fell apart between
us a little bit because I just couldn't understand why

(56:10):
she wanted to do this. I get her reasoning, throwing
Gabe in doesn't help your game, great, I fucking get that,
But you know what's gonna be worse for your game
going at a guy like THEO at this point in
the season, right, Like, that's gonna blow yourself up even
more because what happens if you throw THEO on the
block and then it's a tight race, but Gabe still
goes in. Then you try to make a power move
and it's all for nothing. You've just exposed yourself and

(56:32):
the self proclaimed you know, genius mastermind who's playing everything
close to the chest and is keeping the lock box
on all of her you know, alliances and being strategic.
It's like you want to do that. You're supposed to
be the smart one, right And so like I'm pushing
back at this and I don't think I did it
in a in a very educated way and pond reflection,
I've you know, been able to form a better, stronger,

(56:54):
sharper thought towards it, But like in the moment, I
just was like, dude, what are you doing? And then
she starts grilling me about who I'm working with, and
everything pivots to really nasty territory. She's kind of getting
at me and chewing me up, where she's like, who
the fuck are you working with? Like questioning me and interrogating,
And I thought that her and I were in the
same side of the lines. To your point, like I
was in the middle. I tried to stay as much
in the middle as I could because from my vantage point,

(57:17):
there were three sides of this house, the Banana side,
the Olivia side, and then the group beneath everybody waiting
for one of them to fall. That was how I
viewed it, And I was like, I'm gonna be right
in the middle so that when one of them does topple,
I can just float to the halfway point of everyone's
priority lists and then make moves as it comes in
the season. And for Michaela to just turn on me

(57:37):
and be like who you're working with? Who's this in
the tarry me down? I was just like, shot the
fuck up, dude, like this is this is stupid?

Speaker 1 (57:44):
Were you a little bit disappointed that, for instance, you
guys won that power when the house was already had
their mind made up and it was going to be
Gabe all the way into kind of zag in any way,
would have, like you said, overplayed your hand and probably
not worked anyway? Were you hoping for an opportunity where
you really could have made a difference in who went
in or who went home? Or did you like that
you were able to kind of deflect in the way

(58:06):
that you did.

Speaker 2 (58:07):
For the most.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
Part, I honestly was totally fine with how the trajectory
of the house was in that moment, like Gabe, Gabe
getting all the heat in house. I'm like, that's fine. Whatever.
The only thing I would have changed I would have
loved the opportunity to save a team because then I
could have started a rumor that they were going in,
So me saving them is like some big Hey, here's
an olive branch. You know, I'm helping you out. The

(58:28):
whole ct of like walking up and he's like, I
heard somebody say this, but it's really just him creating
that right, Like I would have totally done that in
the event, we could have saved a team to try
and establish and build a better bridge with somebody else.
So the fact we had to put someone on the
child and block, I was like, this is awful power
to have at a frustrating time when there really is
not much utility in it.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
We got some great questions over at challengemaniacs dot com.

Speaker 5 (58:52):
Go ahead, d did Johnny at all come up to
you guys and say, hey, give me this person or
maybe maybe it's better if you give me this person,
you know, dude.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
He was the first person we talked to. We sat
down with Johnny instantly, and I wanted to give him
that time and space. I was like, you know, is
there a name? And he in classic as you know
Johnny fashion was like, well the guy who I would
have wanted to go against one today. So I guess
he's off and he's like just looking directly at me,
and I was like, oh, okay.

Speaker 4 (59:20):
Well but he was gonna work right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
I was like, thanks John but no, he was very
much like whatever happens happens. I think he assumed it
was gonna be Gabe no matter what he tried to do,
because you know, if you Remember there were a couple
nominations prior to this where a rookie's name or some
other name would get thrown in ten minutes before, and
more often than not, that led back to Johnny and
you know, the close people he was working with. So

(59:44):
I think in his brain he's like, look, I've tried
to spin these nominations in my favor the last couple
of weeks. It hasn't really worked out, So there's no
point even being desperate. You know.

Speaker 5 (59:53):
He and what I was telling Scott at challengemanext dot
com is that I think he he made those moves
too early. The time where he should have made that
move and asked for those favors from those close friends
that he has was then yep and and and Gabe
at that time. I don't know if you remember this.
They haven't shown it, but he had problems with all

(01:00:14):
types of rookie dudes.

Speaker 4 (01:00:16):
It wasn't just Naya.

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
I mean, they spotlighted the Naya situation, but that was
just Naya being like, Okay, I'm gonna go speak for
everybody that's pissed off, including myself, and drop bombs on you,
bomb after bomb after bomb, And there was like really
little to no way out for Gabe unless Johnnie went

(01:00:38):
to his friends and said, give me this person. I
need this favor now, even though I've been asking for
these favors for the past three weeks and they haven't
worked out.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
Yeah, and to better like illustrate all of the follies
that Gabe committed because I don't know if the again,
they haven't really shown too much of it, right, but
in the first week, that whole rumor of Justin doesn't
want to be in the challenge, Somelson wants to go home.
Gabe takes accountability for that boom. There's strike one. Then
you get into this big issue with Gay or excuse me,
with Will at the bar. They have their argument that

(01:01:09):
leads to the bus that leads to the house. So
it's like there's more heat that you're creating that Strike two.
Then it's the Naya nonsense, him shitting on Naya instantly
after partnering. There's strike three. Here's strike fucking four. He's
already out, but he just keeps digging during like before,
because I know you guys in the hotel, we're able
to like have a little bit of unsupervised communication and

(01:01:30):
group activities. We were all super locked down, like they
were on us, but a couple of us figured out
that the phones worked and we can call and we
can just kind of start to lay some foundations here.
So me hear me, Gabe. We're all kind of chatting
that last day in the hotel, just just thinking like, hey,
so you saw this person, what do you think of them?
And then Gabe asked me about like people I don't trust.

(01:01:50):
He's like, who do you not really trust? I hadn't
spoken to Will much, right, and granted, we've spent about
thirty seconds as a combined unit, so that doesn't really
say a ton if I haven't spoken to someone, because
it's like we game hasn't even started. But I was like, yeah,
I haven't spoked with Will. I'm just not sure about him.
Gabe then calls Will and was like, yeah, man, the
new threats just don't trust you. And I was like,

(01:02:11):
that's not what I said. But so then that comes
out right after this whole NIA stuff where Will's going
around telling people like, yeah, DUDEY called me and said
that nobody trusted me, and we all, let you know,
me and Jeremie, we're kind of like Okay, let's conceal
the fact that we were all communicating before the season,
and we'll just have it be pinned on Gabe again.
But that's a strike force how it played out, and

(01:02:33):
so there was just so much heat on him that
as even as someone has connected and powerful as Johnny,
I don't think he would have if he even made
a dedicated effort, could have gotten that off the chopping block.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
We got some great questions regarding some of these. I
don't want to call him fuse disputes.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
Whatever, you with rivalries, some of them not necessarily on
the show, but off the show. These of course, all
came from Challengemaniacs dot com. Where as Derek mentioned, you
can get our full breakdown of this episode four where
you and Mikayla did win the Daily and when Johnny
did get sent packing. So we'll have to find out
next week whether the challenge even continues now that the
challenge is gone. But Steph says, Ben, what's the deal

(01:03:13):
with you and ROGI bear feels like there's some bad
blood there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Where did this start?

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
Yeah? So with Rogan, it's interesting, right, I came into
the house and I knew two people before the season,
started Jake Cornish, I'd called this fight at Misfits Next
series seventeen and Dublin in August last year. Was familiar
with him. Was shocked when I saw him in Chile.
I was like, wow, that's cool. And Rogan. Now I
don't remember meeting Rogan, but he was present in Marbeo

(01:03:41):
for my BKFC fight. Allegedly we connected. I was deeply
concussed and don't recall, but so so those are the
two people I knew, and you know, Rogan, Jac and
Gabe and I were all rooming in the same room
in the first couple days. Were very fun and he's
a hilarious guy. But after the season ends, you know,

(01:04:01):
it means Rogan are chopping it up a little bit.
He's expressing an interest in fighting on Misfits too, and
he's boxed before, so I'm like perfect. You know, I'm
communicating with Mams to try and get him in as well.
And I see a lot of stuff about, oh, Rogan
was cheating on his girlfriend and she'd put up this
Valentine's Day post while he was gone, and there's an
Instagram story that she'd put up while he was gone

(01:04:21):
as well, confirming that they were together, and it just
it really bothers me, you know, that that.

Speaker 7 (01:04:29):
He cheated, and because as we know, you are in
fact Ho, Rogan, because as we know you are in
fact Ho, Rogan's got.

Speaker 3 (01:04:43):
To call it like I see it, and you know,
it's just a little nasty. I can't. I don't condone
that cheating behavior. And Rogan decides to take that and
inflate it to a stupid degree, I think.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
And well, he actually at our live show we had
a premiere party here which with a with a large panel,
he actually said, scot would you mind queueing me up
to tell about this infidelity things?

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Absolutely bullocks. Please ask me if I'm single, Ask me
if I was single. I need to say something. So
I did, and then he.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
Kind of does this you know, clarification, which he then
did again on Johnny's podcast and Zac's podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
And he's kind of been making the rounds.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
He's got this very elaborate story about how he told
his girlfriend that, you know, apparently they were broken up,
but I'll think about you or something, right, and he says,
I guess I didn't think about it much, huh. But
but so he has been doing a reconnaissance mission to
try to kind of dick himself out of the mud.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
So it sounds like you don't really buy any of that.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:05:35):
The key term is elaborate, like this is a weird,
convoluted story to explain your your singleness, and like why
did she drop you off at the airport to fly
to you know, Chile to the season? Right, that's kind
of odd if you guys are so broken up and
this isn't together. Why is she on your call list?
If you guys are broken up? Right, those are two
things that he's admitted where I'm like, that flies in

(01:05:56):
the face of your whole complex layered story of I'm innocent,
I wasn't cheating. I just don't buy it. So I
don't know. I think that accountability is important if maybe
he just owned up to it and was like, yeah,
I'm the asshole, fuck everybody. That's the character that you're
trying to play. You're a heel man, you know, that's
what a heel would do. A heel wouldn't try and

(01:06:18):
lie their way out of this like a bitch.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
All right, Well, hey dude, okay, let's move from We
started with America, then we went to the UK. Now
we're going to Sydney, not Sydney, Australia. Santiago says, Ben,
you've been very anti Sydney on social media.

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
I believe he means, why is that Sydney is?

Speaker 3 (01:06:38):
And you guys put it perfectly in a clip yesterday.
The perfect challenger. She has the skills, she has this
you know, personality and all well and good. It's great TV.
But Sydney is also insufferable. And I'm sorry, but the
constant ego, dick writing and self glazing and just narcissism.
I'm like, have something else going on. You can be

(01:07:01):
overly confident and you know, possess a couple different layers.
If it's just a constant me, me me thing, I'm like,
I'm over it. And then you look at it and
it's like, you know, after episode four, her and I
have the same amount of confessionals. I've won a daily
you know. So I'm like, look, you keep talking about
all this fucking ability, but in the first four challenges,

(01:07:23):
where is it? Where are the results?

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:07:25):
And who knows? Maybe as the season progresses, right, she
can back up all this talk, but you're not walking
it as much and there's this This isn't been shown
and so I won't talk about it too much at
this moment, but a layer of like two faced tell
you one thing and then stab you in the back.
And that is something I didn't realize during this season right,

(01:07:46):
but learned afterwards and a lot of the interactions and
conversations I'd had with her where she's telling me one thing,
saying things such as, you're my number one in here,
let's go to the final, and then you know, saying
other things behind my back. I'm like, that wrote me
the wrong way. So that's why I mean, I think, listen,
I have all the respect in the world for her abilities,

(01:08:06):
and I think that she's great TV. But yeah, little
little too much for me.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
Well you, my friend, may have just given us our
clip for this episode just now, so we'll see.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
That'll be a nice compliment to the Kara compliment clip
that we heard.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
This ties it all together. This is mac Jay.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
Mac Jay going three for three with questions, here, do
you've got this guy ready to run through a wall
and attack the day?

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Dominate the day if you will?

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
With this question, mac Jay says, so, Ben, you certainly
haven't been pulling punches on social media. We just mentioned
a couple of the folks with that in mind, as
well as following your first season as well, Who do
you think would be a good quote unquote.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
Rivals partner for you in the future?

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
And we didn't even know this when he wrote this
in that your your origin story for the Challenge starts
with a rival season, So wouldn't that be fitting if
you one day appeared on one. Who do you think
would be a good rival for you?

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
Obviously with this whole back and forth, you know Sydney
Rogan would be great options. But like, truthfully, I still
have am of the mindset that I need. I want
to prove myself first. Singularly. I want to be able
to come in and do my best without a rival
or whatever else. It's like, that's if a rival season
comes in the future, great, But what I would like

(01:09:20):
first is to get back in there and go you
know what that is. You know, I don't need a
fucking rival or someone that I hate to inspire a
good performance. I can do it myself.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
Stephanie wants to know, Ben, who was your first choice
for a female partner if you had gotten to pick
first like Jeremy tips.

Speaker 3 (01:09:40):
This is a funny one because some people have poked
holes in it. But here's the logic. I was gonna
pick Kara, and here's why. On the mountain it was me, Kara,
d and Turbo that were all kind of running at
the same pace. And so I'd spent like two and
a half three hours running up and down with Kara,

(01:10:01):
having a good vibe of working with her, motivating each
other to run and push through some discomfort. And so
at the end of this, I was like, you know what,
I just ran up a fucking mountain with her. And
she's won this show twice, She's been to nine finals.
This is her sixteen seventeenth season. In terms of experience,
she's got a lot of it. And yeah, that would

(01:10:21):
have been my pick because I think inside the Challenge,
inside this sandbox, she's an excellent competitor. And I was like, yeah,
if I could pick, I'd want to roll the dice
on her.

Speaker 2 (01:10:31):
He just rolled off some stats there. This brings up
Brian's question.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
Brian says, according to Gabe on the Official Challenge podcast,
you had a notebook with scouting reports. I think we
just heard Carl Maria's scouting reports and notes on other players.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
Is that true? Do you still have it?

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
And is there anything funny or worth sharing from your
scouting reports.

Speaker 3 (01:10:51):
I love that he brought this up on the pod, because, yeah,
it's absolutely true. I not only had like a little
notebook that I was filling out every day, but I
also in the hotel, like when they brought you the breakfast, lunch,
and dinner, it was on these trays, and the tray
had a sheet of paper underneath it, right, this big
sheet of paper, And so every time they brought this deck,
you know what I'm talking about, I would take the
paper from the tray, flip it over, and start riding

(01:11:14):
on the back of it.

Speaker 4 (01:11:14):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
I was like, let me maximize as much paper as possible,
and I would hide it all in the top bunk
right there was you're right next to the ceiling. There's
a little ledge, and so I'd put all of my
notebooks in my pants up on that little overhang, you know,
so when I'm in the top bunk, I can just
like reach up, grab it, and boom, bring it back down. Now,
there is a unfortunate scenario in which I think some

(01:11:36):
people discover that notebook and they you know, they might
have read some mean things about themselves observations that I'd
made and yeah I still have it, you know, so
maybe I'll have to rip off a couple debriefing and
run through of it. But uh yeah they they did
not like I remember one thing I said in there. Specifically,
I wrote CT is the Goat. I'm not sure what

(01:11:58):
conversation inspired that, but in like in very capital letters
bold at the top of one page, I was like, yeah, man,
CT's the best.

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
Uh maybe it was after Breakfast with America.

Speaker 2 (01:12:09):
Who knows?

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
This is one I would be remiss if I didn't
ask second to last question from the Maniacs D and
then you can wrap it up here.

Speaker 2 (01:12:17):
This one says what's with the shirt? This one's from
everyone online? So what's with the sleeveless? I like to
call it sexy Steve Jobs.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
It's kind of like almost a It's almost like a
turtleneck black turtleneck that Steve Jobs would give an Apple
presentation in but with no sleeves.

Speaker 2 (01:12:34):
So what you're kind of wearing a version of it? Now?
Almost what's with the shirt? The inspired look?

Speaker 1 (01:12:40):
Is this kind of your you know, your wardrobe and
what do you think of the response to it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:45):
Have you heard any of this fear?

Speaker 3 (01:12:46):
Yeah, you know, I figured no better way to celebrate
a daily Challenge victory than cause playing as a divorced lesbian, right,
That to me felt very intuitive. Now I I have
seen all the response in backlash from it and everyone's opinion,
and there's been some really funny jokes about it. And look,

(01:13:06):
they chose some bad angles of it. There's a couple
of good angles of me stunting in the sleeveless turt deck.
But you know I didn't, maybe because it is your.

Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
Cast photo in that I forget. I feel like I
have seen you in this photo. I mean in this
in this shirt more than just on the show. So
I had wondered, is it something you wear to commentate?
Is it sort of like business in the front, party
in the back, or party onto arms. Either way, it's
a good way to plug Challenge Mania Live Phoenix, because,
as we mentioned, you're gonna be there, a lot of

(01:13:36):
people from forty one are gonna be there, so it's
gonna be cool, be kind of like a precursor to
the forty one reunion because we're gonna have Olivia, We're
gonna have THEO. We're gonna have Chavez, yourself, and Anisa
all there to talk about the season. In addition to
some sort of non sequitor OG's. We have Tyson obviously
representing Survivor Child USA.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
We've got Jody Weatherton Mark Long. But so we'll have
a lot of thoughts on the season.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
But here's a cosplay call out for the city of Phoenix, Arizona.
All right, if you show up to stand up live
wearing your version of or as close as you can
come to the Ben Divorced Lesbian sleeveless turtleneck shirt. If
you cosplay as Ben, not only will Ben sign that
shirt for you, obviously, but well I'll hook you up
with some you know, maybe a sticker or something, some

(01:14:17):
sort of a magnet, something from this from the swag
shop over at the merch stand if you come dressed
to impressed like Ben in the vest.

Speaker 3 (01:14:25):
Okay, so we'll add on to that. I'll layer one
hundred bucks on top of it. Whoever gets there first
in the Bane outfit will get one hundred dollars on
top of them.

Speaker 1 (01:14:33):
Yeah, why why you mentioned that Bane? So what obviously
Bane is it? Is it a batman reference talk about
the nickname the Bane, you know, walking through do you
do the voice?

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
Do you do the voice?

Speaker 3 (01:14:47):
I wish there was like a more complex story. I
was doing some Twitch streaming years back and figure that
Ben Davis just wasn't interesting enough to draw in an audience, right,
Like if you're scrolling looking for a live stream to
sink time into, Ben Davis maybe just doesn't scream. But
I was like, the Bane, right, that's somewhat intriguing, Like
what is the Bane all about? What is the band streaming?
And so that's just what I went by in that period,

(01:15:08):
and that led into the combat sports space a lot.
And so Ben the Baane Dave is stuck And obviously
when I've fought, that's kind of the nickname that has
worked out and has just become a moniker attached to me,
which if you're going to give yourself a nickname, really
usually a bad idea. But I like to selfishly think
that the Bane is a solid one.

Speaker 1 (01:15:25):
So it's not like you were on Twitch playing video
games like.

Speaker 2 (01:15:28):
Oh, I'm going to play Minecraft?

Speaker 8 (01:15:33):
Does anyone want to watch me play Mario God?

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
Idea?

Speaker 3 (01:15:37):
Nothing Like I might have had more success if I did.

Speaker 8 (01:15:39):
That does anyone want to watch me play Mario God idea?

Speaker 3 (01:15:52):
I might have had more success if I did.

Speaker 1 (01:15:53):
That last question it is involves your fight career. Matt says, Ben,
will you a return to competing in MMA? I watched
your BKFC fight. You showed a lot of heart, you
got tagged early, but I feel like you have a
lot of potential and.

Speaker 2 (01:16:06):
I'd love to see you fight again.

Speaker 1 (01:16:08):
So walk us through this performance he's talking about, and
then and then the future potentially for you for.

Speaker 3 (01:16:13):
Sure, and this will correct maybe some more narratives that
Roby's tried to bullshit out. So I fought bare knuckle
Boxing BKFC and a good buddy of mine, Oscar Willis,
is the like lead reporter for Connor McGregor's outlet called
The MacLife, and after Connor became a part owner of BKFC,
they wanted more of a social media push on The MacLife,

(01:16:33):
and Oscar's response was, Hey, we'll push it more, but
you gotta let me have a fight, right, That'll be
a good way that to make it make sense for
The MacLife and everybody else. Let me have a fight.
And they asked him, like, look, we love the idea,
but who the fuck would you fight? Oscar calls me up.
I'm sitting at an Applebee's bar and he's like, do
you want to fight in six weeks in Marbeau in BKFC,

(01:16:54):
And I was like, sure, you know, why the fuck not?
And then we trained two days and went to Marbea
got my ass kicked knocked down I think four times.
But the thing that I feel is commonly misrepresented is
I got up five times. I wanted to keep fighting,
and the referee was like, Nope, you're done, which I

(01:17:15):
agree with the stoppage, totally fine stoppage. But there isn't a,
you know, a sense to this fight where I was
knocked out, flatlined out cold. I was still very much
a little too tough for my own good.

Speaker 5 (01:17:28):
Maybe listen the fact that you did bare knuckle boxing,
uh for such a you know, Connor McGregor is a
co owner of it. Like that's that's insane in itself,
Like that like you won, like in my book, you
won by just getting in the ring and doing that.
Because I've been watching people's faces just get completely mangled,

(01:17:50):
So I hope you weren't one of those people. Speaking
of your uh, your your broadcasting career and what you
do now, can you explain to people what das In
Boxing is. We all know daz In Boxing and Misfits
boxing because we've all heard of it, because it's like
a logan or it's like a Jake Paul promotion, but

(01:18:11):
it's not right, they're not the same, Am I wrong?

Speaker 3 (01:18:15):
It's more like influencer base. So with the Zone they
kind of have Most Valuable Promotions MVP, which is Jake
Paul's product that's more traditional boxing with a little bit
of crossover flair here and there, and then KSI's X
Series is much more influencers, YouTubers, content creators that are
picking up boxing for the first time, not the most
skilled beginning in there, nonetheless, So those are kind of

(01:18:35):
like the two products, and it makes sense for Dezone
to have both in their sandbox, right, Both Jake Paul
and KSI have in competing shows. Either way, it draws attention,
and so I've been doing. I fought there in September
twenty twenty three on the X Series against the Anderson
Silver's kid Gabe, and then since then have been doing
a lot of play by play hosting on air work
for them, and you know, I'm trying to get out

(01:18:57):
of not out of X series, but adding into my
boxing portfolio. But uh, listen, play by plays is tricky.
You know, it's a very thin world and all the
rules are already filled.

Speaker 4 (01:19:09):
Me let me so.

Speaker 5 (01:19:10):
Just a few people that our audience might know that
fought on something like this is Cory Wharton and Chase
de Moore, right am.

Speaker 3 (01:19:19):
I Rosmore and also Callum Izard from thirty nine and
I think another season he's fought on exers before. Idris
Virgo from War the World's Two fought his fits a
couple of times, and Kels has also competed. I think
he was on Love Island, was I Pinder was on
Love Island and fought on extras. So there are a
good amount of reality TV crossover But I guess a

(01:19:41):
quick story in Idris Virgo because you know, he's somebody
that I firstly met through X Series and then learned
he did the challenge, And when I went into the
house there were a couple of people that had done
his season with him. I don't know if you, I
can't remember if you were on the one with Idris,
but they all fucking hated him. They were like, Idris
is the dumbest person of all time. And it's funny
that the challenge were thinks that because in the crossover space,

(01:20:02):
you know, an X series, a lot of people kind
of feel the same about Idris. So it was it
was interesting to have both communities equally view this guy
the same way, which I, well, I thought that was funny.

Speaker 4 (01:20:14):
Well, you got to hear the story, Scott, can you
hear us at all? Or no?

Speaker 5 (01:20:17):
I think I think Scott can't hear no, So I'll
just I'll just I'll just wrap it up here to
tell the story on what what THEO was saying about Idris.

Speaker 4 (01:20:27):
Do you know the story that the assault? It was?

Speaker 5 (01:20:30):
It was where he like he was he was protesting
against production. He took an so we took a vow
of silence so so they couldn't film him and like,
which is obviously counterproductive if you ever want to be
on television by trying to hide yourself from being on television.

Speaker 4 (01:20:52):
So did you hear the same story.

Speaker 3 (01:20:54):
I THEO had mentioned this story. He was like, yeah,
this this you know, statement against the production, a vow
of silence, and he was like avoiding the cameras like
standing behind them in a lot of the scenes. And
then what was the funniest thing that THEO said about
he was like, he was like nobody knew for three
days that he took a valve silence, So as is
just doing this whole routine by himself and nobody's even

(01:21:15):
aware that he's, you know, doing this this vow size.
They just didn't care, which I don't know. That cracked
me up.

Speaker 5 (01:21:20):
What are your so oftentimes we'll call or Bill Simmons
has coined the challenge the fifth Sport. Some people say
that's him kind of talking about the challenge in jest
after being on the challenge. What is your take on
it as far as this being a sport? Would you
consider it a sport or do you think it's that's

(01:21:41):
just what is what? It is just something that Bill
Simon said in jest, that's stuck.

Speaker 3 (01:21:46):
It's true in some ways, I would say false in others. Right,
it's true in the sense that it's a sport in
that now you need to be physically on point. You
need to have this like CrossFit base almost to be
able to do everything in anything that's required in these
daily challenges and some of the eliminations. But I would
almost counter it being a sport because all of those
physical elements, as you know, are equalized by the strategy,

(01:22:09):
and at times it's a puzzle or math or trivia,
right Like, It's not a sport in just a pure
physical sense, which is what so many people conflate that
to be. And so I think it's the perfect blend
of what makes reality TV reality TV, you know. I
think that the Challenge brings the best of everything, the
survivor of the Love Island, the Big Brother elements, the
American Ninja warrior esque elements, and puts it all in

(01:22:31):
a blender. And that's what makes it, in my opinion,
the best reality TV show ever. Because you're not watching
it going man, I wish we had some of this.
I wish we had some of that you're getting fucking everything.
But yeah, it for it being you know, a fifth sport.
I would just wager and add as well that just
because you're the biggest doesn't mean you're the best. I mean, shit,
Jordan beat Josh Martinez in a fucking a tug of war. Right,

(01:22:56):
So size is and everything, and Derek, you and I
both know that, and and.

Speaker 5 (01:23:00):
Jordan is borderline a superhero and arguably the best to
ever do it. So it's hard to say, you know
that everyone can do what what Jordan does, but you.
But just recently, just if you could just weigh in
on this, this last elimination that we saw between Johnny
Bananas and Gabe Uh, there's been a lot of talk

(01:23:20):
on the Internet's Internet specifically from Wes that weight based
challenges should become more same weight uh type type of
competitions against people with the with the same weight. What
do do you think that the elimination between Johnny and
Gabe was fair?

Speaker 3 (01:23:42):
Fairness is such a a good word to mole over
because is it meant to be in a certain extent
right like these are. That's just the luck of the draw.
Sometimes you walk into the arena and you have to
deal with what you get. Styles make fights and stylistically,
this was an awful matchup for Johnny Bananas and that's
just the ca that he pulled this season. You know,
sometimes he's had eliminations where it is much more in

(01:24:03):
his favor. Sometimes it's not right. Fairness is I would
say that that's the fairness that's equitably applied. Is sometimes
it does work in your favorite Sometimes it doesn't balance
fair this one specifically. Yeah, I mean we I think
on the bus rides over in the house after nomination,
all had the sense that Johnny's gonna win and come back,
and the moment everyone step foot in the arena, at

(01:24:25):
least my perspective was, oh, fuck, Johnny's going home. The
way that that was just laid out, They're like, oh,
he's doesn't have a chance. You're telling me that as
fit as Johnny was, he was incredibly fit this season,
he's gonna hold back a fucking NFL level player, a
pro rugby player, a six six, two hundred and fifty

(01:24:46):
pounds monster that is doing a twenty meters sprint. No
nobody in the house would have been able to hold
Gay back. So it's you know, it was it was
tough for him, but I don't know, I think that's
just the luck of the draw sometimes and for Gabe,
like this was a great moment for Gabe. That's a
cinematic experience. You send the goat home in dominating fashion

(01:25:07):
after weeks of burying your own name, talk about a
way to welcome yourself back to the house. And I
think there was a clean slate that was established that night.
We went Okay, Gabe, you've earned a bit of slack here.
Let's see what you do with it. You know, are
you gonna trip up yourself again or are you gonna
be able to forge forward, build and repair some relationships
and you know, recover from from those first couple of weeks.

Speaker 4 (01:25:30):
Definitely?

Speaker 5 (01:25:31):
Okay, that that's about all I have. Man, really appreciate
you popping in. Is there any final words that you have,
any last minute big takeaways that are burning to come
off of your tongue before we take off here?

Speaker 3 (01:25:48):
Hmmm, I don't know, you know, I know, no real
seriously huge takeaways. I think that for me, there's an
element of I don't want to say mischaracterization I've seen
here and there online, but like, look, I am probably
one of the more available people on socials. I'm chronically online,

(01:26:09):
and so I just like being engaged. That's just how
I run thing. This is how I've been doing stuff
in the MMA world for many years. And I hope
that that's not mischaracterized by some as like a any
sort of desperation. It's like, I'm just online. That doesn't
mean I'm you know, cling for some sort of attempt.

Speaker 5 (01:26:24):
Well, no, I mean I think you're online for a reason.
I think what you're doing online works really well. Well no,
I mean I think you're online for a reason. I
think what you're doing online works really well. I think
that you're really good at breaking stuff down and you're

(01:26:47):
really funny when you do it, at least on X.
I think that like you coming onto the challenge is
so different because there's been so many people over the
years that hit me up up and they go, how
do I get on the challenge? How do I get
on the challenge? And when we saw you into the
in that interview chair, we were I was like, this

(01:27:09):
is the most like normal person that has gotten onto
the challenge, Like everyone else came from a show.

Speaker 4 (01:27:17):
You know, that doesn't mean that you don't have a
really cool background.

Speaker 5 (01:27:21):
It's just that you got in in the most like
normal way.

Speaker 4 (01:27:26):
But it wasn't you know that normal?

Speaker 5 (01:27:29):
It was and yeah, and like next coach and the
next closest person to you was Raven. Raven got on
on Rider Dies because she was Johnny. Johnny's rider died,
the other the other Johnny that came from a dating show.
But I thought she came from a dating show, you know,
and she didn't. She was just a college student, and

(01:27:51):
you know, it was a big hit.

Speaker 4 (01:27:53):
Kind of same with you man.

Speaker 3 (01:27:55):
I really appreciated that some people picked up on that
where it's like the average guy in the Olympics. That's
one hundred percent the line that I was going for,
and I think I said in that interview with TJ, like, look,
I'm here to prove that you don't need a reality
TV background to be successful on the show and to
swim with the sharks and find your own way. You know.
That was the whole I would say driving force for
me this season was the chip on the shoulder of

(01:28:16):
I didn't come from these shows. I don't have this
type of background, but I'm gonna give it as much
as I have and prove that you on the couch
could find ways to be successful on the show. And granted,
like in you know, the first couple episodes, there just
wasn't much use of those confessionals and that storyline for
me was dropped, which makes total sense. There's just more
compelling things going on. But yeah, that was my whole

(01:28:38):
line this season was I'm the most average person here,
but I'm still gonna try and find ways to win.

Speaker 5 (01:28:45):
Yeah, and to be honest with you, like your background,
like where you come from is still kind of cooler
than the dating shows.

Speaker 4 (01:28:54):
I hope that one day maybe we can find a.

Speaker 5 (01:28:56):
Way all three of us find a way to a
UFC event and kind of like really enjoy something that
we all love, you know, together.

Speaker 4 (01:29:06):
But in the meantime, do you have anything else coming.

Speaker 5 (01:29:08):
Up in the you know, mixed martial arts world that
you might be promoting or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (01:29:15):
We've got X Series twenty two on August thirtieth, Darren Till,
Luke Rockholdt, former UFC title challenger, former UFC champion, come on.
What a great main event. And in the Colemane Super
Salt Poppy the Misfits star, one of the guys that
we've built up for the last couple of years, taken
on Tony Ferguson. That's a matchup that's drawn some criticism.
Tony is north of forty eight fight losing streak, But

(01:29:36):
there is a case for reinvention here. You know, he
doesn't have to worry about the grappling, which is what's
plagued him in some of his more recent losses, So
I think that we'll see a different version of Tony
and insault Poppy. Look, this is a step up in experience.
Tony's the by far, the most experienced guy he's ever faced.
And it's not like he's it's not like he's unblemished.

(01:29:57):
You know, he's lost before. He's been suffocated to decision before.
So for people that look at that comane and go, oh,
what an easy wash for Salt Poppy, I disagree. But
only one way to find out that's on pay per view.
De Zone will be at the AO Arena in Manchester.
I can't wait.

Speaker 4 (01:30:11):
So where can they order that on? At on?

Speaker 5 (01:30:15):
But Jeff going down dot com, DAZN dot com, d
a z n dot com. Those are some really big
names formerly from from from the UFC. I'm really surprised
with Tony Ferguson. I love his heart and his fight,
So I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna try to tune in.
I'll be honest with you. But in the meantime, you
guys can go meet Big Baby Baine, Davis, uh and

(01:30:37):
Scott and the rest of Challenge Mania in Phoenix. What's
the date on that phoensix cause I'm not gonna be
a September seventh. Is it September seventh? September seventh Challenge
Mania Dot Live for tickets go enjoy everybody in Phoenix
on September seventh.

Speaker 4 (01:30:52):
Tickets at Challengemania that Live. Thank you for tuning in.

Speaker 5 (01:30:56):
Follow Big Baby Bain Davis on X What is it?

Speaker 4 (01:31:01):
What's what's your handles? What are your handles?

Speaker 3 (01:31:03):
It's at Bend the Bane Davis on all platforms.

Speaker 4 (01:31:06):
Ben the Bane Davis.

Speaker 5 (01:31:07):
I added Big Baby, I.

Speaker 3 (01:31:12):
Like a massive baby face. Is the Baby Base?

Speaker 8 (01:31:14):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:31:14):
Is it Ben?

Speaker 4 (01:31:14):
Isn't Bend? Wasn't the former Celtics player?

Speaker 5 (01:31:17):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:31:18):
Big Baby Ben Davis? Or was it Big I don't
even know anyway, who cares?

Speaker 5 (01:31:22):
I gotta run check him out. Hope you enjoyed the podcast.
UH really appreciate you being here.

Speaker 1 (01:31:28):
All right, guys, this sends your time here on Challenge Mania.
Take care of yourselves and hopefully we'll see in the future.

Speaker 9 (01:31:46):
The Challenge Mania Shop is open. Head over to challengemnia
Dot Shop today for the best way to support the
podcast while looking good doing it. New designs and items
added every few weeks. Maniacs time to mobilize check out
challenge Mania Dot shop today

Speaker 3 (01:32:05):
H

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 486: Ben "The Bane" Davis

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Ep. 486: Ben "The Bane" Davis

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