The champ and the overwhelming favorite is coming back to do two things, eat and win.
Competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut made it known Monday that after a year away, he will return to compete in this year’s Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest after sitting out last year’s battle for the coveted Mustard Belt.
“This event means the world to me,” Chestnut, 41, said in a message posted on social media. “It’s a cherished tradition, a celebration of American culture, and a huge part of my life.”
It will mark the 20th appearance for the Indiana eater at the Coney Island contest.
In 2024, Major League Eating event organizer George Shea said Chestnut, who has won the 10-minute eat-a-thon a record 16 times, would not be eligible to participate due to a contract dispute. Chestnut had struck a deal with a rival brand, the plant-based meat company Impossible Foods.
In a phone interview Monday, the competitive eater made it clear he never took part in any commercials for the company’s vegan hot dogs and that Nathan’s is the only hot dog company he has worked with. But Chestnut admitted that he “should have made that more clear with Nathan’s.”
“There was a little bit of communication that we could have improved on last year,” he said. “And I, yeah, I think we figured it out. It took a little bit of finessing.”
Chestnut is still working with Impossible Foods and said “clarifications” have been made to his respective contracts.
Embed from Getty ImagesShea, president of Major League Eating, said he did not want to talk about what happened last year because he found it “dispiriting,” but said he’s happy “everything is resolved” now.
“I think it’s the return of the greatest competitive eater of all time to the biggest competitive eating event of all time. So, I don’t think it gets much bigger in any sport,” Shea said. “I mean, this guy is the greatest performer we’ve ever seen in Coney Island and in competitive eating.”
Chestnut said he communicated with fans over the past year who wanted him to return to the Coney Island event, which is broadcast live on ESPN and even broadcast overseas.
Last year, he opted to compete against soldiers in Fort Bliss, in El Paso, Texas, in a 5-minute hot dog eating contest. Back in ‘the city that never sleeps’, New York, Patrick Bertoletti gobbled up 58 hot dogs and buns to win his inaugural men’s title, while defending champion Miki Sudo won her 10th title in the women’s division, downing a record 51 links.
Chestnut holds the world record of eating 76 hot dogs.
“Over the last year, I ran into a lot of people who said that it wasn’t the same without me. And I told many people that I was going to work really hard to make sure I got back there,” Chestnut said. “And I’m really happy that Nathan’s and Major League Eating, we were able all to figure it out.”
Chestnut said he has been training for the big event and has a couple of practice sessions left before the July Fourth holiday.
“My body’s in tune right now,” he said, explaining how he has to build endurance for consuming so many hot dogs and “get all those muscles used to working together.” He compared the strenuous process to boxer sparing and getting in practice rounds before a big fight.
Chestnut made it clear his business relationship with Impossible Foods does not mean he has become a vegan; an assumption he said some fans made last year. Chestnut said he was caught off guard and surprised by the “weird blowback” he received about it, explaining he eats a plant-based diet during his recovery from competitive eating events.
“I love meat. I’m going to continue to eat meat. But when I recover from a contest, I have to eat super clean in order to get my body to try to get back to normal,” he said. “I can’t eat pounds of meat every day.”
