‘The Challenge’ Stars Jordan Wiseley And Nia Moore Discuss Their Heated 2013 ‘Real World’ Fight

MTV has been cutting ties with problematic cast members in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, due to inappropriate past and present behavior. Dee Nguyen, Taylor Selfridge, and Alex Kompothecras have all been let go from their respective shows on the network for racist social media posts ranging from 2012 to now. Some viewers of The Challenge have been calling for the boot of veteran Jordan Wiseley for many reasons, but most notably for a fight he and Nia Moore engaged in during their time on The Real World: Portland. The duo sat down for an Instagram live session (via Entertainment Weekly) Thursday night to discuss the fight, which many believed was racially motivated.

In the past clip from The Real World, Jordan is seen mimicking a monkey to Nia as they fought, making animal sounds at her while subsequently dropping the N-word. Nia, a black woman, showed restraint as Jordan, a white male, spit Cheerios in her face among other actions. Jordan and Nia, who are now friends, saw the call for his firing and decided to sit down and show how far they’ve come while they explained what really went down that night in 2013.

“Jordan did not ask me to do this,” Nia made sure to note at the beginning of the Instagram live session. “He is my friend, I love him deeply. Over the past few weeks I’ve seen something bubbling… We lived it. Neither of us have never hid from our mistakes. Now that this has become a hot topic, I felt like as his friend, someone who deeply loves him, I feel remiss sitting by. I wanted to put it out there for us to have dialogue.”

“This is not an excuse. We are re-bringing this up because of the impact that it now has today,” Jordan followed up.

The two then noted that they had been flirty all season long on The Real World leading up to their fight, and blamed these flirtations on why they fought so much in the house. In their blowout, Nia admitted to using the N-word towards Jordan, which resulted in him using it back at her. According to the former Challenge competitor, she never felt Jordan’s comments or actions were racially motivated and didn’t think his monkey impression was a racist gesture.

“It wasn’t heavy for me,” Nia noted.

Nia then confirmed she knew Jordan wasn’t racist and didn’t feel his actions that night had anything to do with the color of her skin. In response, Jordan took responsibility for his actions, noting that he understood why viewers feel the way they do, based on how the fight played out on screen.

“This whole thing of trying to prove you’re not racist is so funny to me because I know you’re not one,” Nia later said.

The reality star then said she couldn’t sit by as Jordan was being labeled this way, given the current state of the world. The pair shared that the “real lesson” was the two of them sitting down all these years later after the fight and how they have both grown and learned from the situation. Jordan indicated he just wanted to move forward as those, who he described as “trolls,” continued to bring up this fight on social media.

MTV has not made an announcement regarding Jordan’s position on the network moving forward, but many viewers continue to chime in on Twitter and call for his firing, suggesting the Instagram live was just a way to save face so he could stay on The Challenge.