Hot-dog eating has officially become a sport. Apparently a contract dispute between Takeru Kobayashi and Major League Eating means the competitive eater from Japan is no longer scheduled to compete in the annual hot-dog-eating contest on July 4 at Nathan's in Coney Island.
Kobayashi's decision leaves American champion Joey Chestnut without a true challenger. Chestnut nailed down 68 hot dogs in 12 minutes last year to best the Japanese eater by four weiners. The next closest competitor was Chicago native Patrick Bertoletti who stuffed in 55 hot dogs and buns.
Deadspin has a press release from Major League Eating President George Shea about why Kobayashi might not compete:
In recent weeks, Major League Eating has sought to arrive at an agreement with Kobayashi, but contract negotiations have reached an impasse. MLE remains hopeful that Kobayashi, who won the contest from 2001-2006, will decide to compete this July 4th in Coney Island, when Joey Chestnut will seek his fourth consecutive title.
Perhaps Kobayashi is bitter about losing to Chestnut the past three years. Either that or he still isn't over his loss to this competitor. For his part, Chestnut still thinks Kobayashi might show up and is just building online buzz -- like this post -- to drum up interest in the event.
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He did show up and got arrested trying to take the stage, it was breaking news on ESPN yesterday when he was released from a NYC jail. What has our nation come to when this is breaking news.
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