Joey Chestnut Breaks Hot Dog Eating World Record While Facing Takeru Kobayashi in Labor Day Hot Dog Eating Contest

Two competitive eaters revealed who is the top dog.

Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi square off in a Labor Day hot dog eating contest during Netflix Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished beefwhich aired live on Monday, September 2.

The two have a long, storied history full of internet digs at each other and hundreds of hot dogs. After taking a 14-year hiatus from competing against each other, Chestnut, 40, and Kobayashi, 46, reunited on stage at the HyperX Arena in Las Vegas.

Right outside the door, the culinary enemies were well-matched. Chestnut and Kobayashi were tied in the first minute of the contest.

With eight minutes left, Chestnut broke a personal best and ate 25 passes in two minutes. But Kobayashi was not far behind with 22 dogs.

Midway through, the score increased between Chestnut and Kobayashi as the former had 51 and the latter 45. Sports commentators excitedly commented that Chestnut was on his way to breaking his world record.

Joey Chestnut.

Joey Chestnut/Instagram

With two minutes left, Chestnut had eaten 72 hot dogs while Kobayashi had eaten 60 dogs. Just a few seconds later, Chestnut broke his personal and world record by eating 76 hot dogs in eight minutes and 45 seconds.

The record breaking continued as the competition went on. Chestnut was crowned champion of the Netflix special with 83 hot dogs, a score that also surpassed his personal and world records.

Kobayashi, who said ahead of the live performance that this food-eating competition would be his last, ended up with a final tally of 66 hot dogs.

Entering the battle in Las Vegas, Kobayashi held the record of 64.5 hot dogs in 10 minutes, which he achieved during Nathan’s famous 4th of July hot dog eating contest. Chestnut’s record was 76 hot dogs in the same time, which he also achieved during the annual Coney Island competition.

“I’ve been trying to hit 80 hot dogs for years and without Kobayashi, I’ve never been able to,” Chestnut said after receiving $100,000, a hot dog trophy and the championship belt. “He drives me. We haven’t always been good to each other, but I love the way we push each other to be our best.”

Kobayashi’s last words were, “I feel like I did everything I could.”

Several contest rules differed from Nathan’s hot dog eating contest. During the Labor Day competition, Chestnut and Kobayashi were not allowed to separate the bun from the hot dog or submerge the food in water.

But despite being “very concerned” about the rules, Chestnut said they could be part of his new technique.

“Any other hot dog contest I do, I’ll eat some of them without getting dunked,” he said.

Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi compete in Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4th, 2008.

Bobby Bank/WireImage

The decades-long tension between the two contestants stems from early hot dog eating contests.

Beginning in the summer of 2001, Kobayashi defeated Chestnut during Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest six years in a row. Chestnut then dethroned Kobayashi in 2007. They last shared the stage at Coney Island in 2009, but last competed in 2010 in Singapore. Here, Chestnut came out on top after eating 380 shrimp wontons compared to Kobayashi’s 370 shrimp wontons.

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Earlier this year, Kobayashi announced his retirement from competitive nutrition. Kobayashi said at Netflix Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut“I don’t feel the joy of eating anymore,” he said. “It’s scary to think that the brain and the gut are so closely connected. It makes me want to be more careful with what I eat.”

Ahead of the Netflix battle, Chestnut, who holds over 50 competitive eating records, told PEOPLE he was “excited and nervous” to face Kobayashi again.

“I feel like a kid,” Chestnut said of his emotions in the match. “We’re going to push each other to crazy limits, and that’s competition… He pushes me, and I’m so motivated during practice.”

Although he appreciates his rival, that doesn’t mean they are friends.

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“I respect him, but I also don’t like him. That’s my only rival that I have this weird… We both have friction. And he’s still blocking me on Twitter and Instagram,” Chestnut explained, adding that it’s “terrible.”

In previous interviews, Kobayashi has been equally open about his feelings for Chestnut.

“If you ask me, do I want to compete with him? Mmm, not necessarily,” Kobayashi said Day beast in 2019. “I don’t even want to be in the same room with him.”

The broadcast showdown was first announced on June 12, one day after news broke that Chestnut would not be participating in Nathan’s famous hot dog eating contest on the Fourth of July this summer.

A statement from Major League Eating explained that Chestnut was ineligible to participate due to a conflict with the plant-based brand. Nathan’s, which has held the eating contest every year at Coney Island since 1979, does not allow its competitors to endorse a “rival brand.”

Instead of competing at Coney Island, he spent his Fourth of July competing in a fundraising event for military families at Fort Bliss Army Base in Texas, where he downed 57 hot dogs in five minutes.

Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished beef aired live on September 2nd at 3pm ET/PT and is now streaming on Netflix.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education