Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi, widely considered the kings of the hot dog-eating world, can't be held down for long. Each was banned from the annual Fourth of July fun, considered the world championships of the so-called sport.
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But fear not, fans of the frankfurter. The two are set to square off in a Netflix bout on Labor Day.
Chestnut is regarded as the biggest legend the sport has ever seen. But Kobayashi says he's about to claim that title.
" I want everyone to look forward to this," he told ESPN. "It will be live globally, and the world's greatest will be determined. And it shall be me."
ESPN went in-depth in its one-on-one with Kobayashi. Here are some highlights:
ESPN: What was your intent when you climbed on the stage? What did you want people to see?
Kobayashi: It was about me trying to tell the people that I'm ready. I'm prepared to eat, to challenge and to win against Joey.
ESPN: And now, nearly 15 years later, you are about to compete again. But in May, Netflix released a show, "Hacking Your Health," in which you seem to say you planned to retire from competitive eating. What went into that decision?
Kobayashi: In terms of the timing of the broadcast, it was not what I intended. That show was filmed three years ago during the pandemic. At that point when I was being interviewed, I hadn't competed in two years. So, both mentally and physically, I was not at that place where I had the mind of an athlete. Through the show and discovering the facts about what was happening to my brain, I did feel that, yeah, maybe I would think about retiring because of the situation that we were all in. And whoever translated my words into English, well, what I did say in Japanese was maybe I will end up retiring eventually.
