He’s the champ of chomp once more.
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut reclaimed his title in the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4, inhaling a contest-record 70 wieners and buns in 10 minutes. Rival Matt “Megatoad” Stonie snatched the coveted Mustard Yellow International Belt from Chesnut’s jaws last year, so the nine-time champ was hungry for revenge, he said.
“It’s his fault — he beat me last year and woke the sleeping giant. He made me go back to the drawing board and figure out my body again,” Chesnut told ESPN.
The dethroned Stonie, who has been embroiled in a fiery feud with former friend Chesnut, was gracious in his defeat.
“Joey came out, he brought his A-game,” Stonie told television cameras. “I can’t take that away from him.”
Chesnut lost in a heart-breaker last year, later saying he was off his game because the woman he proposed to before his 2014 win broke off the engagement just before the 2015 contest.
But the champ came out of the gate hot and never looked back this time, one longtime fan said.
“To see him going at it, to have 40 dogs down in four minutes, I mean look I can’t eat two in a month — it was just fantastic,” said Coney Islander David Orlov, who has attended nearly every competition over the last decade. “It’s silly, it’s fun, and it’s a Coney Island staple — just like the Mermaid Parade.”
Chestnut walked into the competition on top of his game. He qualified last week with a world-record 73.5, and the crowd was squarely on Chestnut’s side, often chanting his name and booing when emcee George Shea introduced Stonie.
Ladies champ Miki Sudo won her third-straight, putting away 38.5 franks to break the previous contest record of 38.