SAS Australia: Firass Dirani lets rip at Merrick Watts in wild radio interview

Firass Dirani unleashed on SAS Australia co-star Merrick Watts this morning, saying, “I would have coffee with him if I had COVID”.

Andrew Bucklow

@ACBucklow

3 min read

October 30, 2020 - 9:15AM

Merrick Watts explodes at Firass Dirani (SAS)

Firass Dirani has claimed he was “stitched up” by the SAS Australia instructors and unleashed on co-star Merrick Watts in a wild radio interview this morning.

Dirani has been the show’s most talked about contestant due to his misbehaviour which saw the other celebrity recruits get punished as a result.

On Tuesday night’s episode, viewers saw Watts and Shannan Ponton confront Dirani about his behaviour in a heated conversation.

That sparked a war of words in the media, with Ponton telling news.com.au Dirani behaved like a “sociopath” and Dirani labelling the former Biggest Loser trainer a “redneck”.

Shannan Ponton on SAS Australia.

This morning Dirani spoke to KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O and targeted Watts with a series of insults.

“Can we stop calling him funny, man?” Dirani said about the comedian. “He’s got this … I don’t know what kind of syndrome it is, it’s like no one else can be funny in the room.

“I think he was doing his schtick a lot and he was missing a lot,” Dirani said. “I’ve heard of comedian’s hit and miss, but I’ve never seen one that (went) miss, miss, miss, slip down, crash, burn.”

Dirani called Watts “a bit of a control freak” and sarcastically said: “I would have coffee with him if I had COVID and I wasn’t wearing a mask and I didn’t want to laugh.”

News.com.au reached out to Watts who said about Dirani: “I haven’t bothered to go into name calling and pettiness. I rose above Firass’ level when I was on the course. I’m not going to bring myself down with petty insults and trying to criticise people’s careers.”

Watts referred to a comment made to him by SAS Australia instructor Billy Billingham which was: “Results, not excuses.”

Merrick on SAS.

STARS TRIED TO FORCE DIRANI OUT OF THE SHOW

On Kyle and Jackie O this morning, Dirani said that viewers will soon see a scene where Watts approaches chief instructor Ant Middleton and asks for Dirani to be booted from the show.

“They do another little intervention and they wanna vote me out,” the actor told the radio hosts. “They actually go to Ant and they’re like, ‘We’ve come to the conclusion that we want number 11 out.’ Ant’s like, ‘This is not the show, you can’t just vote someone out. Why are you voting someone out? Go back, mate.’”

Watts explained the incident to news.com.au: “The only reason I went to the DS (directing staff) was because I was duty recruit which means I was the only person allowed to call the DS.

“I said to the entire group, ‘Are you absolutely sure (we want to ask that Dirani is removed)?’ I said to them, ‘I’m happy to go and do it because I’m duty recruit and that’s my responsibility, but I’m telling you, all he’s gonna say to me is, no, this is our choice, not yours.’

“It was certainly not led by me,” Watts said.

DIRANI CLAIMS SAS INSTRUCTORS TRICKED HIM

During his interview on KIIS FM, Dirani claimed that on at least one occasion he was “stitched up” by Middleton and was made to look bad in front of the group.

“The way the show is structured is sometimes these guys just stitch you up,” he said about the instructors. “I’d be walking behind Ant Middleton and he was jumping from one stone to another and I was doing the same thing … I said to him, ‘I like to challenge myself.’ And he’s like, ‘Well don’t worry about that, we’re going to be challenging you later on.’ I said, ‘I hope so,’ and that was off camera between us two.”

Dirani said Middleton later brought that up in front of the other recruits who were punished as a result for the smarta**e comment.

“That was how it was curated,” Dirani said.