Joey Chestnut is as soon as once more prime canine.
The competitive-eating icon returned to the Nathan’s Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest after being banned from final 12 months’s competitors and ate his option to a seventeenth profession victory on the annual Fourth of July occasion in Coney Island, New York.
The 41-year-old from Indiana relished the second by consuming 70.5 sizzling canine within the 10 minute occasion — throughout which contestants chow down as many sizzling canine and buns as attainable, typically soaking them in water to melt them.
The king of consumption cruised to victory, however he did not stroll away from the desk solely glad.
“I wish I ate a couple more, I’m sorry guys,” Chestnut instructed ESPN after the win. “But yeah, I’ll be back next year.”
JOEY CHESTNUT’S DOMINANCE CONTINUES 🐐
Chestnut downs 70.5 sizzling canine to win his seventeenth Nathan’s Well-known Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest title 🏆 🌭 pic.twitter.com/B3TMBrayZ7
— ESPN (@espn) July 4, 2025
Chestnut downed 11 sizzling canine within the opening minute. On the midway mark of the occasion, he had eaten 46 and averaged a tempo of over 9 sizzling canine per minute to take an 18-dog lead over the subsequent finest eater. With one minute remaining, he had a complete of 64 sizzling canine and was comfortably in entrance by 22.
“Oh, my gosh, I was nervous,” Chestnut mentioned. “First couple of hot dogs I was fumbling a little bit, but I found a pretty good rhythm. My goal was 70 to 77, I really wanted a little bit more.”
He takes residence $10,000 and the coveted Mustard Belt, a WWE-like bedazzled championship belt with the Nathan’s brand on it.
Chestnut topped defending champion Patrick Bertoletti, of Chicago, who completed with 46.5 sizzling canine.
Bertoletti gained the title in 2024 with a complete of 58 sizzling canine when Chestnut was banned as a result of a partnership with Unattainable Meals, a plant-based rival of Nathan’s. Chestnut introduced in June on social media that he can be making his return for his twentieth look, matching Eric “Badlands” Booker for many all time.
Chestnut, who holds 55 world consuming information, was unable to interrupt his personal Nathan’s report of 76 sizzling canine consumed throughout the 2021 contest. He added to his grand complete of sizzling canine consumed over 20 appearances within the competitors, which is now 1,289.
Chestnut has gained 16 of the 19 Nathan’s Sizzling Canine Consuming Contests he has competed in. He completed third in his 2005 debut with 32 sizzling canine and second in 2006 with 52 sizzling canine. He then gained eight consecutive contests earlier than getting upset in 2015 by Matt Stonie, who ate 62 sizzling canine to Chestnut’s 60.
Chestnut gained one other eight straight contests between 2016 and 2023 earlier than being banned from the 2024 competitors.
He has now began a brand new streak as prime canine.
“I love being here,” Chestnut instructed ESPN. “As soon as I found out I was coming, my body, it was easy to train, and I love doing it. I love pushing myself and eating the heck out of people.”
Miki Sudo wins eleventh girls’s title in Nathan’s Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest
ANGELA WEISS/AFP through Getty Pictures
ANGELA WEISS/AFP through Getty Pictures
Miki Sudo competes for the ladies’s title throughout the 2025 Nathan’s Well-known Fourth of July sizzling canine consuming competitors at Coney Island within the Brooklyn borough of New York on July 4, 2025.
Miki Sudo, the Joey Chestnut of ladies’s aggressive consuming, prolonged her sizzling canine dynasty.
Within the girls’s competitors for the Nathan’s Sizzling Canine Consuming Contest earlier Friday, Sudo captured her eleventh profession victory and fourth straight. The 39-year-old from Tampa completed nicely wanting the report she set final 12 months by consuming 51 sizzling canine, however she downed 33 to comfortably declare her eleventh win in 12 years.
Sudo stays undefeated within the occasion, with the one 12 months she didn’t declare the title in that stretch being 2021 when she didn’t compete as a result of she was pregnant with a bun within the oven.
Sudo topped Michelle Lesco, the 2021 champ, who ate 22 3/4 sizzling canine.
“I feel like I let the fans down a little bit. I heard people in the crowd saying, ‘Go for 52,’” Sudo instructed ESPN after the occasion. “Obviously, I’m always setting my goals high, but the hot dogs weren’t cooperating. For some reason, the buns felt larger today.”
