It is not often that we can witness two all-time greats go head-to-head. A true clash of the Titans at their respective expertise. We will never see LeBron James and Michael Jordan face off on a basketball court. Joe Montana will never get a chance to take down Tom Brady, and Muhammed Ali will never touch gloves in the ring with Floyd Mayweather.
However, in the competitive eating world, the greats do collide. This is exactly what we saw as Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi faced off. 15 years after the two last competed, they settled the score in a unique competition. The two most famous competitive eaters took part in a live Netflix special called “Unfinished Beef” in which they competed for 10 minutes straight with some modified rules.
The two have had a rocky public relationship throughout their professional careers. Contract complications have prevented this matchup from occurring for such a long period. The competitors made the most of the event with Joey Chesnut breaking his own World Record in the process.
Joey Chestnut Breaks World Record
Joey Chestnut made it clear he meant business right from the start of the contest. He started on an incredible pace setting his own personal best of 13 hot dogs in the first minute, and 25 after two minutes.
It was smooth sailing from this point as Chestnut broke his record with just under a minute still on the clock. With a pained look on his face, he continued pushing through and finished with 83 hot dogs on the day. This broke the previous world record of 76, also held by Chestnut, by seven total hot dogs.
While he could not keep up with his counterpart, it was still a solid effort from Kobayashi. He fell behind early on in the contest and was never able to make up the necessary ground. Ultimately, he finished with an official count of 66 hot dogs over the 10 minutes after one was subtracted from the total due to excess, uneaten food unable to be swallowed in the 30-second window. This still broke his previous record of 64.5 hot dogs which he set during the Nathan’s competition in 2009.
Following the competition, Chestnut did his best to handle himself with class. He credited Kobayashi for helping to push him over the 80 hot dog mark telling the audience, “He drives me. We weren’t always nice to each other but we push each other to be our best.”
It’s not clear whether this will end up being a one-time event or if the two high-level eaters will look to compete again. Chestnut made it clear he is not ready to stop competing just yet. But for the time being, he should enjoy officially being crowned the best competitive hot dog eater in history and once again raising the bar to a level which may never be reached again.
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