Whether or not you want to consider competitive eating a sport, we’re witnessing greatness right now in Joey Chestnut.
At the age of 37, Jaws captured his 14th Mustard Belt and won the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest for the 6th straight year by eating a world record-76 hot dogs in 10 minutes on Sunday afternoon.
The Glizzy Gladiator has won the men’s Hot Dog Eating Contest every year since 2007 except for one, which came back in 2015 when Matt Stonie beat him by two dogs, and he now holds the record for most championship titles in a single event with 14 titles.
Chestnut has become so dominant over the years that oddsmakers didn’t even give the rest of the competition their own individual odds to win this year and instead gave Joey Chestnut -5000 odds to win it all and the rest of the field was set at +1200. The over/under set for Chestnut was also at 73.5, so if you hit the over you’re having yourself a good day.
By the time the halfway mark rolled around, Chestnut had finished 46 dogs and held an unofficial 14-dog lead, which was actually a slower pace for him from last year. But it clearly didn’t matter because he topped his own record yet again with his historic performance.
Perhaps he had a little extra space in his stomach this time around after only competing in just three events last year due to the pandemic compared to his usual seven or eight. Aside from the Hot Dog Eating Contest last year, Chestnut also won a Big Macs contest where he ate 32 Big Macs in 38 minutes and 14 seconds, and a Red Beans and Rice contest where he finished 39.5 bowls in eight minutes.
Absolutely wild!
