Your current and still reigning World Hotdog Eating Champion...Joooeeyyy Chestnuuuuut!!!

That's right competitive eating fans, Joey Chestnut has once again beaten former world champ Takeru Kobayashi (story + vid), in a battle of epic proportion. This was like Federer vs Nadal, Ali vs Fraser, or Lakers vs Celtics

After ten minutes of solid h­otdog eating (with beer) the two goliaths were tied on 59 hotdogs each. They then entered into a sudden death dog-off. The first man to finish five hotdogs would be champion and walk away with the mustard yellow belt. And when the dust (and probably vomit) settled Chestnut was that Champion.

Interestingly the time for the initial eating period was shortened from 12mins to 10mins after it was revealed that the original 1916 contest was only ten minutes long. This favoured Chestnut slightly as Kobayashi is known as a strong finisher as can be seen in this match report:

Chestnut quickly pulled ahead, with cheeks puffed as he crammed
hot dogs into his mouth. At one point, the 24-year-old Californian led Kobayashi 14 to 11. Kobayashi fell to third place, but ate his way back and the two went dog-to-dog in the final stretch. After a
frankfurter photo-finish, the judges decided it was a tie.

However, Kobayashi was lucky to be there at all as the Brooklyn Paper revealed that he was the only competitor who didn't have to qualify (Kobayashi received a "sponsors exemption"). Still as a former champion who won six times in a row, I think they were right to cut him some slack.

MLE* chairman George Shea noted that "Nathan’s has given sponsor’s exemptions in the past, just as, say, Tiger Woods is not asked to qualify for every tournament."

*Major League Eating.

For those of you thinking that this must be the most disgusting sporting contest on earth to watch, you're right. It's a little like "2 girls, 1 cup" except live on ESPN. In order to swallow the dogs faster the competitors dip the buns into beer turning them into mush (this technique was Kobayashi's invention). Many competitors also suffer "reversals" that count against their totals.

And quite frankly the whole thing must be severly shortening the competitor's lives. Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor at New York University School of Medicine said:

"Hot dogs are extremely unhealthy, especially when eaten at high volume," he said. "They're really processed, they have high cholesterol and too much salt."

And thanks to the quantities the competitors ate, they'll likely suffer nausea, bloat, headache, and possibly high blood pressure for several days as the body slowly digests the food.

"One is bad for you, five's worse and 50 is terrible," he said.

And perhaps this is the beginning of the decline for this great rivalry. In last few years records were smashed whenever these two titans of eating faced each other. This year they fell ten dogs short of the mark set last year despite Chestnut saying that he was "mentally prepared to get to 70". Kobayashi as well has suffered since having his wisdom teeth removed and suffering a sore jaw.

We'll have to wait and see. The next time these two will go jaw to jaw is Sept. 28 at the Krystal Square-Off World Hamburger Eating ­Championship in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Chestnut out chows Kobayashi [ESPN]

As mentioned in the soon-to-be-released episode 23 of the podcast, here's the footage of Joey Chestnut's first ever victory over eating legend Takeru Kobayashi, at the 2007 Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest.