If Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio had it his way, he’d continue to compete on The Challenge as long as he can.
“I love The Challenge. I love going, I love competing,” Devenanzio, 43, exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of MTV’s The Challenge: Vets and New Threats premiere on Wednesday, July 30. “However, I just don’t have the social battery that some people do.”
Devenanzio gave credit to fellow season 41 contestant Olivia Kaiser for her ability to adapt to the game’s social strategy aspect. Devenanzio teased that Kaiser’s relationship with Theo Campbell and ability to team up with some of the international players helped paint a target on his back right away.
“She already had an immediate connection with the U.K., with the Brits, so she was able to get in their ear very early on and convince a lot of people that I’m basically the second coming of Satan,” he told Us. “So it didn’t take long for the crosshairs to be put squarely between my eyes, which I am used to. But it is just frustrating when it happens like this early on in the game. Can we get a challenge under our belt? … Now it’s like, now I got to strap up the day I get there.”
Throughout Devenanzio’s Challenge career, he’s been a dominant player. He joked that the day others don’t see him as a threat is the day he’ll consider retirement.
“When I show up and people either leave me alone or they start cheering for me,” he told Us. “Once I see people cheering for me in a challenge or elimination, that’s when I’ll know it’s time to go because I’m no longer feared. They no longer fear me because they’re actually rooting for me. Start rooting for me, and then you’ll never see me again.”
Devenanzio has appeared on 22 seasons of the MTV competition series, managing to take home the ultimate prize an impressive seven times. As one of the greatest Challenge players, Devenanzio joked that the cash prize was one of his biggest motivating factors in his decision to keep coming back.
Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio hillip Faraone/Getty Images for MTV’s “The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras”
“They have to convince me with higher wages, obviously,” he teased. “But no, it’s more me convincing myself that I’m ready to check back in and endure all the mental anguish and physical anguish and emotional anguish that it takes to go through a season of The Challenge. It’s funny, like you think the more you do, the easier they get. It never gets easier.”
Devenanzio added that as he’s gotten older, the show has gotten “a little more difficult” for him to navigate.
“When I was younger and I lived a more chaotic life — I can’t say I have a lot of stability in my life — but when I lived the more chaotic existence when I was younger and I didn’t necessarily need any sort of structure or routine or rhythm in my life, it didn’t really bother me,” he explained. “But when I’m home, when I’m not filming, when I’m just doing my real life thing, I have a very structured existence. So it’s difficult to then check from that, check out of that, and then go back to sleeping in a bunk bed and eating, catering and … set your mind to the extreme and being just kind of isolated from the outside world.”
Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio is just like Us! The Challenge star is focused on physical and mental health, growing his career — and he loves a good “to-do” list. “There’s something so satisfying about checking off tasks. It’s [like] having a hit list on The Challenge and knocking my enemies off one by one,” the reality […]
When not competing on The Challenge, Devenanzio’s fitness and training are a priority as he owns a boxing studio in Florida.
“I basically have to train on a daily basis. It’s a business. I’m the face of the place, so I have to stay in shape just for that,” he said. “But I always say if you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready and that’s just how I’ve always been. I really credit The Challenge to keeping me in shape, because I got to put in twice as much work to get the same output as I used to have to.”
The Challenge: Vets and New Threats premieres on MTV on Wednesday, July 30 at 8 p.m. ET
