America’s perennial sizzling canine swallowing champion gained’t compete on this 12 months’s Independence Day competitors because of a contract dispute, organizers mentioned Tuesday.
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, 40, has been competing since 2005 and hasn’t misplaced since 2015. Eventually 12 months’s Nathan’s Well-known Fourth of July sizzling canine consuming contest he downed 62 franks and buns in 10 minutes.
However Main League Consuming occasion organizer George Shea says Chestnut is shifting away from the competition because of a contract dispute.
“We love him, the fans love him,” Shea mentioned, including that “He made the choice.”
Shea says Chestnut struck a cope with a competing model — a pink line for the Nathan’s-sponsored occasion — however didn’t elaborate. He mentioned the dispute got here right down to exclusivity, not cash.
“It would be like Michael Jordan saying to Nike, ‘I’m going to represent Adidas, too,’” Shea mentioned.
In a press release to NBC Information, MLE mentioned it was “devastated to learn that Joey Chestnut has chosen to represent a rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs rather than competing in the 2024 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest.”
The assertion mentioned, “MLE and Nathan’s went to nice lengths in latest months to accommodate Joe.y and his administration workforce, agreeing to the looks charge and permitting Joey to compete in a rival unbranded sizzling canine consuming contest on Labor Day.
Chestnut didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark made by way of his web site.
Chestnut has lengthy dominated the competitors. These vying for second place previously might need renewed hope to swallow their strategy to first place this 12 months, together with worldwide rivals on the consuming circuit.
Final 12 months’s 2nd place winner was Geoffrey Esper from Oxford, Massachusetts, who downed 49 canine. Third place went to Australia’s James Webb with 47. That was removed from Chestnut’s greatest effort: his file was 76 Nathan’s Well-known sizzling canine and buns in 10 minutes in 2021.
In 2010, Japanese consuming champion Takeru Kobayashi, Chestnut’s then-rival, additionally stopped competing within the annual bun combat because of a contract dispute with Main League Consuming. Kobayashi crashed the competition in a T-shirt studying “Free Kobi” and was arrested. He was sentenced to six months’ probation. Kobayashi introduced his retirement from the game final month.
