America’s perennial scorching canine swallowing champion will not compete on this 12 months’s Independence Day competitors as a result of a contract dispute, organizers mentioned Tuesday.
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, 40, has been competing since 2005 and hasn’t misplaced since 2015. Ultimately 12 months’s Nathan’s Well-known Fourth of July scorching 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 as a result of a contract dispute.
“We love him, the followers love him,” Shea mentioned, including that “He made the selection.”
WATCH | Chestnut eats 62 scorching canine and buns, wins Eighth-straight Mustard Belt in 2023:
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut ate 62 scorching canine and buns to win his eighth-straight Mustard Belt and sixteenth total on the 2023 Nathan’s Well-known Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest.
Shea says Chestnut struck a take care of a competing model — a crimson line for the Nathan’s-sponsored occasion — however didn’t elaborate. He mentioned the dispute got here all the way down to exclusivity, not cash.
“It will be like Michael Jordan saying to Nike, `I’ll characterize Adidas, too,”‘ Shea mentioned.
Chestnut has lengthy dominated the competitors. These vying for second place prior to now may 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 second 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 finest effort: his file was 76 Nathan’s Well-known scorching 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 struggle as a result 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 6 months’ probation. Kobayashi introduced his retirement from the game final month.
