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At this point, no Fourth of July is complete without Joey Chestnut.
Americans everywhere will rush to their television sets at noon on America’s 250th birthday, as the world’s biggest eater will aim to eat a hot dog for every year the United States has existed.
OK, it might be a stretch, but it’s already a foregone conclusion that Chestnut will earn his 18th mustard yellow belt in 19 tries on Saturday afternoon.
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Joey Chestnut wins the men’s competition at Nathan’s Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest in New York City on July 4, 2025. He returned to compete for a 17th win after missing the 2024 event due to a sponsorship dispute with Major League Eating. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)
The greatness began in 2007, ending a run of six straight titles won by former GOAT Takeru Kobayashi, who actually injured his jaw prior to that contest. Chestnut’s 66 hot dogs defeated Kobayashi’s 63 in a preview of a legendary career to follow.
A rivalry developed between the two, with Chestnut narrowly beating Kobayashi the next two years, including via a tiebreaking eat-off in 2008. When Kobayashi was banned from the event in 2010, Chestnut took off.
Chestnut had won every title from 2007 to 2014, but he was the victim of a massive upset in 2015 to Matt Stonie, losing 62-60. But Stonie’s glory was short-lived, and Chestnut went on to win each of the next eight events.
There was a new champion in 2024, but not because Chestnut lost – he was actually barred from competing after signing a brand deal with a Nathan’s rival. After much back-and-forth, Chestnut was allowed to return to the 2025 event with just weeks to spare, and he regained the title with 70.5 dogs and buns.
Joey Chestnut visits “The Claman Countdown” with host Liz Claman at Fox Business Network Studios on July 2, 2025 in New York City. (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
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“It was great. The crowd is great, it’s electric. It’s good to be back after mending some fences,” Chestnut recently told Pakinomist Digital of his return last year. “I’m doing what I love. I got the best job in the world. I get to eat, travel, hit people and meet happy people. So it was great to be back.”
Not all of Chestnut’s titles have come easily. In 2022, Chestnut’s eating was interrupted by a protester, but he miraculously put him in a chokehold and went back to business; he still managed to bring down 63 dogs and buns.
Even his likely championship on Saturday doesn’t come without a wrinkle, as his eligibility in 2026 was actually in doubt a little bit amid a battery charge. Chestnut drunkenly punched a man at an Indiana bar and pleaded guilty to the charge in April. He is currently serving 180 days of probation, but was allowed to travel to the event.
His all-time record is 76, which he set back in 2021. That broke his own record of 75 from the year before, which broke another previous record of 74 from 2018.
And while most people watch for one reason, Chestnut believes this event is much more than just seeing him.
FILE – Joey Chestnut, winner of the 2021 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest, poses for pictures at Coney Island’s Maimonides Park, July 4, 2021, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File)
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“It’s never about me,” he told Pakinomist in May. “It’s not even about hot dogs. It’s the Fourth of July. It’s an eating contest, but really it’s a celebration of the Fourth of July, it’s a party in New York. And the contest, it’s hard to describe exactly.
“It’s an event, it’s more than just an eating contest. It’s part of the Fourth of July celebration for New York City, and I’m only a very small part of it. And when it comes to that celebration, I’m very happy that I could come back and be a part of people’s Fourth of July.”
