Hot dog-eating rivals Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi compete in a dog fight on Labor Day
Two of the world’s best eaters vie for the top spot in a Labor Day showdown streamed live on Netflix.
Monday’s highly anticipated clash between American Joey Chestnut, a 16-time champion of Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, and Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, who has won the same title six times, will be their first two-dog meeting in 15 years.
Netflix, which announced the event under the title “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef,” did a lot of advertising for the new releases.
“We’re going to push each other,” Chestnut, 40, said last month on the “TODAY” show alongside Kobayashi, 46.
“I think we’re going to set world records,” Chestnut added.
The special comes after Chestnut, whose nickname is Jaws, was conspicuously absent from this year’s Fourth of July contest at Nathan’s flagship store in Coney Island in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. He said the event’s organizer, Major League Eating, ruled him ineligible – much to the disappointment of his fans – after he began working with a competitor that sells plant-based products. However, Major League Eating denied that he had been “banned.”
Kobayashi’s return to competitive sport is unexpected, but for a different reason: This year, he revealed in the Netflix documentary “Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut” that he is retiring from competitive eating after no longer feeling hungry and wondering “what damage I have done to my body” after estimating that he has eaten 10,000 hot dogs in his career.
But after not competing in competitive eating contests for the past five years, he told “TODAY” that the opportunity to devour hot dogs with Chestnut again meant “a lot” to him because he was retired.
“I’m literally back for a day,” said Kobayashi, nicknamed Tsunami.
His winning streak in the annual Nathan’s contest in the early and mid-2000s helped popularize competitive eating.
On July 4, 2009, when he and Chestnut last competed, Chestnut devoured 68 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes to win over Kobayashi’s 64½ hot dogs and buns. Chestnut became the contest’s preeminent champion, while Kobayashi stopped competing in the contest in 2010 due to a contract dispute.
By then, Chestnut had beaten Kobayashi three times in competition, while Kobayashi had bested him twice.
“We’re going to eat real hot dogs on Labor Day,” Chestnut said on “TODAY.”
Netflix said contestants would have 10 minutes to eat as many hot dogs as possible, but warned that the rules would be more demanding, such as not dipping hot dogs or buns in water and not separating the sausages from the bread.
The special is expected to include contestants such as competitive eater Matt Stonie competing in a chicken wing eating contest against three decorated Olympians – swimmers Ryan Lochte and Ryan Murphy and water polo player Max Irving. British competitive eater Leah Shutkever will also attempt to eat a record number of watermelons in three minutes.
