New York — America’s perennial scorching canine swallowing champion received’t 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. Eventually 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 transferring 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.”
Shea says Chestnut struck a cope with a competing model — a purple line for the Nathan’s-sponsored occasion — however didn’t elaborate. He mentioned the dispute got here right down to exclusivity, not cash.
“It could be like Michael Jordan saying to Nike, ‘I’m going to characterize Adidas, too,’” Shea mentioned.
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 opponents on the consuming circuit.
Final 12 months’s 2nd place winner was Geoffrey Esper from Oxford, Massachusetts, who downed 49 canines. 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 scorching canines 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 six months’ probation. Kobayashi introduced his retirement from the game final month.
