A day after being ruled ineligible to compete in next month’s Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest because he’d signed with a rival hot dog brand, Joey Chestnut will compete in the upcoming event.
Chestnut, a 16-time champion, will face his old nemesis, Takeru Kobayashi, on “Unfinished Beef” on Sept. 2, which will be streamed live on Netflix.
The location has yet to be decided.
“Kobayashi has been my toughest rival throughout my career in competitive eating,” Chestnut said in a statement. “Competing against him has made me a better person. I know fans have been waiting a long time for a new chapter in our rivalry and I can’t wait for our big showdown to air live on Netflix. It’s time to give you all what you want!”
Chesnut, 40, won last year’s Nathan’s hot dog eating contest by eating 62 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes. His record is 76 in 2021. Chesnut has won the competition eight times in a row.
He shot to fame in 2007 when he defeated Kobayashi by eating 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes, a competition he had entered as a six-time consecutive winner.
“I will be retiring after beating him one last time,” Kobayashi said in a statement on Wednesday. “This rivalry has been brewing for a long time, and facing Joey on Netflix means fans around the world can watch me beat him.”
Kobayashi recently said he was retiring due to health concerns in a Netflix documentary, in which he said he “no longer feels hungry.”
The decision to not include Chestnut in this year’s Fourth of July Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest caused an immediate uproar.
Major League Eating said Tuesday that Chestnut violated rules that state participants cannot promote competing hot dog brands. Chestnut is sponsored by a plant-based food company.
“For nearly two decades, we have worked under the same basic hot dog exclusivity agreement, but it appears that Joey and his management have prioritized a new partnership with another hot dog brand over our longstanding relationship,” Major League Eating said in a statement.
The group said the company and Nathan’s had recently gone to “great lengths” to allow Chestnut to participate in “an unnamed Labor Day hot dog eating contest,” a reference to the Netflix event.
Netflix has been ramping up its live sports offerings in recent months, including plans to stream the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul boxing match in November and recently announcing a deal to broadcast three NFL games on Christmas Day.
