Two of the world’s greatest competitive eaters are vying for top dog during a Labor Day showdown streaming live on Netflix.
Monday’s highly anticipated matchup 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 dog-to-dog face-off in 15 years.
Netflix, which is billing the event as “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef,” hyped up their arrivals.
“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 make world records,” Chestnut added.
The special comes after Chestnut, whose nickname is Jaws, was noticeably absent from this year’s July 4 contest at Nathan’s flagship location in Coney Island, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. He said event organizer Major League Eating ruled him ineligible — much to the disappointment of his fans — after he began partnering with a competing plant-based rival. Major League Eating, however, denied he was “banned.”
Kobayashi’s return to competition 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 was retiring from competitive eating after no longer feeling hungry and wondering “what damage I’ve done to my body” after estimating he’s consumed 10,000 hot dogs in his career.
But after ceasing competitive eating for the past five years, he said on “TODAY,” the opportunity to scarf down hot dogs again with Chestnut “means a lot” because he’s retired.
“Literally, I’m back for one day,” said Kobayashi, who is nicknamed the Tsunami.
His string of wins in the annual Nathan’s contest in the early- and mid-2000s helped to popularize competitive eating.
On July 4, 2009, when he and Chestnut last competed against each other, Chestnut devoured 68 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, lapping up a victory over Kobayashi’s 64½ hot dogs and buns. Chestnut would go on to become the contest’s pre-eminent champion, while Kobayashi stopped competing in that event in 2010 because of a contract dispute.
Up until then, Chestnut had beaten Kobayashi three times in competition, while Kobayashi surpassed him twice.
“We’re going to eat some hot dogs for real on Labor Day,” Chestnut said on “TODAY.”
Netflix said they will have 10 minutes to eat as many as they can, but warned the rules will be more challenging, including no dunking hot dogs or buns in water and no separating the weiners from the bread.
The special is expected to include undercard events, such as competitive eater Matt Stonie taking on three decorated Olympians — swimmers Ryan Lochte and Ryan Murphy and water polo player Max Irving — in a chicken wing-eating contest. British competitive eater Leah Shutkever will also attempt to eat a record number of watermelons in three minutes.
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