Joey Chestnut Defeats Takeru Kobayashi in ‘Unfinished Beef’ Hot Dog-Eating Rematch
Hot diggity dog: Joey Chestnut is a winner again! On Monday, Chestnut won his hot dog-eating competition against Takeru Kobayashi, downing 83 hot dogs and buns and beating his previous world record of 76. He beat out Kobayashi, who only downed 66 glizzies.
“Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef,” which aired on Netflix and took place at the HyperX Arena at the Luxor in Las Vegas, marked the first time that the two competitive eaters faced each other in a hot dog eating contest in 15 years.
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Kobayashi won the famous Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest six times in the early 2000s but has not competed since 2009 because of a refusal to sign an exclusive deal with its organizer, Major League Eating. Since then, Chestnut has dominated in his glizzy gobbling field, winning the contest every year between 2007 and 2023, except in 2015 when he lost to Matt Stonie.
“Through all of my years in competitive eating, Kobayashi stands out as my fiercest rival,” Chestnut previously said in a statement for the “Unfinished Beef” contest. “Competing against him pushed me to be so much better. I know that fans have waited a long time for another chapter of our rivalry and I can’t wait for our massive showdown live on Netflix! It’s time to give the people what they want!”
The face-off also came several months after Chestnut was controversially banned from this year’s Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest after he signed a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, which sells plant-based franks.
The organization’s statement also acknowledged the then-unannounced Netflix rematch with Kobayashi: “MLE and Nathan’s went to great lengths in recent months to accommodate Joey and his management team, agreeing to the appearance fee and allowing Joey to compete in a rival unbranded hot dog eating contest on Labor Day. However it seems that Joey and his managers have prioritized a new partnership with a different hot dog brand over our long-time relationship.”
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