Joey Chestnut Wins His Second Consecutive Mustard Yellow Belt

Congratulations to Joey “Jaws” Chestnut for winning the 2008 Nathan’s Famous International Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest and its first place prize of $10,000. It was an incredibly exciting competition with the “sports” two superstars, Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi, going hot dog for hot dog with the lead changing at key moments of the contest until at the end of 10 minutes both stood tied, each having consumed 59 hot dogs and buns. (link) Chestnut then clinched his second consecutive Mustard Yellow Belt in a five hot dog and buns eating over time.


While I would have been very happy to see either Chestnut or Kobayashi win the overtime, I have some lingering questions after watching Friday’s competition. The first of which is what is the official Major League Eating rule for overtime? I ask this because there seems to be some discrepancy, which I feel was unfair to both Chestnut and Kobayashi and may have been the reason Koby fell behind in the five dog eat off.

When the competition ended in a tie, it was announced that the championship would be determined by whoever could finish five hot dogs and buns (HDB) the fastest. Not only is this a completely different type of competition than trying to eat as many HDB in a set amount of time, it is also contradictory to how a tie was handled at the Dallas Nathan’s Qualifier held on June 21st. At that particular qualifier “Nasty” Nate Biller and “Double O” Kevin Ross tied with 20 HDB consumed and the two professional eaters then competed in a 2 minute eat off. (link) I think this is a much more appropriate way to break a tie and I wonder why there is such a discrepancy in the way ties are handled in MLE sanctioned events.

The other really sketchy aspect to this year’s competition is that on May 14th, 2008 MLE posted on their website that because of the expanded amount of qualifying events, 18 in all, that no wildcard seats will be awarded this season (meaning an eater did not have to win a qualifier to be given a spot in the hot dog eating contest). (link) Yet when the list of this year’s contestants was announced, Kobayashi’s name was on the list even though he had not won or even competed in a qualifying event.

While some feel he shouldn’t have been allowed to compete at all, I believe Kobayashi deserved a spot at the table for all he has done for the event and league. But why post the announcement on the website and then contradict yourself a month later. George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating, told The Brooklyn Paper’s Gersh Kuntzman the reason for the backtracking is that “the sponsor wants him…the sponsor believes that it’s not a contest unless Koby is there,” and that is 100% true. (link)

But let’s not kid ourselves, not only is it good for the event and Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, it is also imperative for MLE and ESPN, who airs the event, that the living legend Kobayashi compete to both give the competition merit as well as real competition. Everyone involved knew this to be the case or they wouldn’t have billed this year’s contest as “The Rematch II” between Chestnut and Kobayashi. Thankfully it worked out for all parties involved and the Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest was as successful and riveting as ever before.

The 2008 Nathan’s Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest Live on ESPN

Happy Fourth of July everyone! It’s the nation’s birthday, which means its time for the 4th’s greatest tradition, the 93rd annual Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. This is a big week for The Blot with my second favorite non-sport sporting event taking place the day after the start of my favorite non-sport sporting event, the World Series of Poker’s Main Event.


The world’s biggest hot dog eating contest has been taking place at the Nathan’s Famous hot dog stand on Coney Island since 1916 and this year’s should prove to be its biggest yet. 21 of the world’s top professional eaters will be converging in New York City to battle over the sport’s most coveted title, the Mustard Yellow Belt, and a $20,000 cash prize. It is being billed as The Rematch II between the reigning World Hot Dog Eating Champion and the #1 Ranked Professional Eater in the World, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, and the #1 Challenger and 6 time World Hot Dog Eating Champion, Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi. These two have been battling fiercely the past few years with world records being shattered in three of the last four competitions.

The Blot is eagerly waiting to see if American Joey Chestnut can hold off the Japanese superstar to win his second consecutive Mustard Yellow Belt. The 2008 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest takes place today, July 4, 2008, at 12/11C and can be seen nationally on ESPN.

2008 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest Contestants
Joey "JAWS" Chestnut
Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi
Pat "Deep Dish" Bertoletti
Tim "Eater X" Janus
Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas
"Humble" Bob Shoudt
Hall "Hoover" Hunt
Tim "Gravy" Brown
Rich "The Locust" LeFevre
"Patrick "Vandam" Vandam
"The Lovely" Juliet Lee
Juris "Dr. Bigtime" Shibayama
Eric "Badlands" Booker
Erik "The Red" Denmark
Arturo Rios "Grande"
Pat "From Moonachie" Philbin
Allen "Shredder" Goldstein
Crazy Legs Conti
"Nasty" Nate Biller
"Pretty Boy" Pete Davekos
"Double-0" Kevin Ross

MLE - Niko Niko’s World Gyro Eating Championship

This past Saturday, The Blot headed to a local Greek festival to watch my very first Major League Eating “sporting” event. The MLE is “the world governing body of all stomach-centric sports,” which sprung out of the popularity of Nathan’s Famous 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest that has occurred yearly at Coney Island, NY since 1916. (link) This past weekend was the Niko Niko’s World Gyro Eating Championship, hosted by local Greek restaurant Niko Niko's and run in conjunction with the MLE and the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE).

If you’ve never seen a competitive eating event then you’re really missing out on a very unique experience. I’ve watched the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest for the past few years on ESPN, and when I heard there was going to be an MLE event in Houston I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see some of the biggest names in competitive eating do what they do best, eat. Along with a slew of local amateur hopeful world record setters, the MLE brought in three of the league’s top rated athletes, including the number 1 ranked competitive eater in the world and reigning Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest champion, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut.

Chestnut set a Nathan’s Famous Record and a World Record last July by eating 66 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs and Buns in 12 minutes, narrowly edging out the living legend and champion hot dog eater 6 years straight Takeru Kobayashi. Also competing in the Niko Niko’s World Gyro Eating Championship was the number 2 ranked competitive eater Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti, a chef from Chicago who holds multiple records in competitive eating, and fifth ranked “Humble” Bob Shoudt, who despite being a vegetarian was ready to devour the many meaty gyros put before him.

The timed event gave competitors 10 minutes to consume as many 12 ounce gyro sandwiches (pitas stuffed with rotisserie meat, tomatoes, onions and tzatziki sauce) as they could, without regurgitation, and awarded $4,000 in prize money to the top 4 finishers. To say the event wasn’t for the squeamish is putting it lightly. With tzatziki sauce flying and gyro meat being devoured at a record pace, the Gyro Eating World Record set that day was sure to be a statistic that would stand for a very long time. After time expired and the dust had settled, the unbelievable occurred in Houston, TX, the great Joey Chestnut had fallen.

After the official results were tallied, it was determined that Pat Bertoletti had consumed 12 Gyros (9 lbs. of food) and was awarded the Niko Niko’s World Gyro Eating Championship Belt, $2,000 in prize money, and the official World Record of Gyro Eating. (link) Chestnut came in second place with 11 gyros (8.25 lbs. of food) and earned $1,000. Humble Bob ate 9.5 gyros for third place and won $700, while Nasty Nate the Newcomer ate 6 gyros for fourth place and earned $300.

All in all, the event seemed a huge success and was quite an experience. I had definitely never seen such amazing feats of gastric supremacy and am looking forward to my next MLE event. Hopefully I won’t have to wait until next year’s Niko Niko’s World Gyro Eating Championship to see such hardcore competition. If you’d like to see more of the Gyro Eating Championship, check out my pics from the event below.