Joey Chestnut defeated longtime rival Takeru Kobayashi in a hot dog eating contest on Monday afternoon in Las Vegas, chowing down a world record 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
Chestnut broke his own record of 76 hot dogs in 2022. Kobayashi finished with 66 hot dogs, his personal record.
"This is amazing," Chestnut said afterward. "I've been trying to hit 80 hot dogs for years. Without Kobayashi, I was never able to do it. He drives me. We weren't always nice to each other, but I love the way we push each other to be our best."
It was the first meeting between the hot dog eating champions in 15 years.
"I feel like I did everything I could,'' Kobayashi said.
Chestnut is a 16-time Nathan's hot dog eating champion in the 4th of July competition on Coney Island in Brooklyn, which he was disinvited from this year after signing with rival hot dog maker Impossible Foods and its vegan hot dog.
Netflix live-streamed Monday's contest, billed as "Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef."
Kobayashi won the Nathan's contest six consecutive years beginning in the early 2000s. Chestnut first beat Kobayashi in 2007 and defeated him again in 2008 and 2009, the last time the pair squared off against each other before Monday.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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