Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi have tied up a loose end.
In the Netflix livestream event hosted on Labor Day, September 2 by Rob Riggle and Nikki Garcia, competitive eaters Chestnut and Kobayashi faced off once again for the first time in 15 years. The winner received $100,000 and a custom championship belt made by WWE.
Despite Kobayashi once revealing that he wanted to retire, Chestnut emerged as the champion with 83 hot dogs eaten.
“I’ve been trying to make 80 hot dogs for years,” Chestnut said before crediting Kobayashi for reawakening his competitive nature. “He pushes me. We haven’t always been nice to each other, but we push each other to be the best we can be.”
“I feel like I did everything I could,” Kobayashi said of the defeat.
The two competitive eaters have been competing in Nathan's annual hot dog contest for years, but the last time they went head-to-head was in 2009, when Chestnut defeated Kobayashi in a sudden-death five-hot dog challenge.
Major rule changes for their battle this time around include: no dipping or pouring water on hot dogs and buns; no separating hot dogs from buns; penalties may be assessed for rule violations or regurgitation; 30 seconds to finish whatever is left in the mouth at the end of the 10 minutes, and excess crumbs are weighed and deducted from scores if necessary.
Before the race, Chestnut and Kobayashi reflected on their rivalry.
“He was an incredible champion until he started losing,” Chestnut said. He also said that every time Kobayashi lost, he would make up “an excuse,” mentioning when Kobayashi once revealed he had a jaw problem.
“When I heard Joey say my jaw problem was fake, I got really angry,” Kobayashi said. “It's the first time my personal feelings have been involved. I want to kick his ass.”
Chestnut has won Nathan's 16 times (including the last eight years) and holds the record for most hot dogs consumed in 10 minutes with 76. Kobayashi has won Nathan's six times and was the subject of a recent Netflix documentary Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gutwhere he revealed that he was planning to retire from competitive eating. In 2010, Kobayashi was banned from competition due to a contract dispute. He has broken world records for competitive eating and currently holds more than 10 world records in the sport.
“For me, retirement will only happen after I knock him out one last time,” Kobayashi said in a statement when the contest was first announced. “This rivalry has been brewing for a long time. Competing against Joey live on Netflix means fans around the world can watch me knock him out.”
During the special, fellow Olympians Ryan Murphy, Max Irving, and Ryan Lochte competed against Stonie in a chicken wing eating challenge, with Stonie winning after eating 53 wings in 3 minutes. Then, 24-time Guinness World Record holder Leah Shutkever also attempted to set the record for most watermelon eaten in one minute, which she did.
Unfinished beef is just the latest live event to stream on Netflix. Other upcoming live events include a live boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson in November and two NFL games in a blockbuster deal with the league in December.