If You Thought Kobayashi Was Monstrous, Here’s Mighty Joe Chestnut

June 4th, 2007

Joe Chestnut recently shattered Takeru Kobayashi’s hotdog-eating record by gobbling up 59 1/2 “hotdogs and buns” at the Southwest Regional Hot Dog Eating Championship held somewhere in Phoenix, Arizona.

Kobayashi’s old record of 53 3/4 was set last year at Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, held at Coney Island in New York, said George Costos, who helps runs the regional contests for Nathan’s.

Chestnut placed second in last year’s world championships, consuming 52 hot dogs.

“He’s unbelievable — he just keeps on going,” said Ryan Nerz, who works for Major League Eating, which he describes as “a world governing board for all stomach-centric sports.”

“These guys’ numbers have just been going up at a tremendous clip,” Nerz said. “I always thought there was a limit — a limit to the human stomach and a limit to human willpower — but I guess not.”