The Major League Eating Top 50 has been updated. Joey Chestnut remains #1 despite his estrangement from the organization. Nathan’s winner Pat Bertoletti jumps to #2. The new top 10

1. Joey Chestnut (previously #1)
2. Pat Bertoletti (#9)
3. Geoff Esper (#2)
4. James Webb (#5)
5. Miki Sudo (#3)
6. Nick Wehry (#4)
7. Gideon Oji (#6)
8. Derek Hendrickson (#8)
9. Michelle Lesco (#10)
10. Darrien Thomas (#12)

Entering

• 13 Sean Yeager
• 16 Max Stanford (fixed)
• 38 Radim Dvoracek
• 45 Joey Przybylowicz
• 47 Cherish Brown
• 48 Julie Goldberg

leaving

• 16 Darron Breeden
• 28 Juan Rodriguez
• 30 Sarah Rodriguez
• 46 Brian Dudzinski
• 48 Kathryn Tesch
• 50 Doug Ecks

Notable omissions: Takuya Yamomoto, William Lyon, Max Stanford, Yasir Salem, Kylan Lee, Tandra Childress

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Badlands Booker has defended his chugging championship. One of the other competitors had a “reversal” which appears to rival Sloth in the Wing Bowl as one of the greatest reversals in competitive eating history.

Dutch Mazz is also doing a live video that will hopefully have clearer audio than Gigi’s.

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Fox 5 DC has a live video of this afternoon’s Z burger eating contest in Washington, DC.

The top 5
1T Molly Schuyler 34
1T Dan Kennedy 34
3 Joel Hansen 30
4 Robert McGee 15
5 Andrew Krawczyk 10

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Time Magazine has an article about competitive eating health risks which also offers an update on Tim “Eater X” Janus.

Tim Janus, a 47-year old ex-competitive eater who Metz has studied in scientific research, quit the sport in 2016 after 11 years “out of an abundance of caution” partly based on Metz’s findings about the risks. He was also concerned about the harms of throwing up following competition, a practice that he describes as widespread. “When you’re eating that much food, you can’t digest it all,” he says. “Your stomach is too full to move things along. Throwing up after the contest is a necessary part of the sport.”

Janus tried to collaborate with other pro eaters to share and track their health to better understand the effects of competing, but he couldn’t rally their interest. He’s now a foreign service officer in Mexico City in good health. Most of his former competitors say they’re healthy, too, but he “didn’t want to continue and realize I made a mistake.”

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Joey Chestnut did an interview with Sports Illustrated about his estrangement from MLE

SI: So you felt blindsided? This was just out there, and it wasn’t something you’d known would happen when you signed with Impossible, and it wasn’t something you’d heard about from the Shea brothers or Major League Eating?

JC: Absolutely not. Everything with Impossible was perfectly fine by all my previous agreements. They changed terms and conditions [around] exclusivity. And it’s not the first time they’ve changed some things, but it’s the first time they’ve really changed things after the fact, and I had to say, “Hey, it’s too late, I’ve already started working with this brand.” This was never an issue in the past. And they tried to dance around it—they changed a lot of terms, and then they escalated things to a degree they didn’t imagine when they started leaking information and telling people I was banned and that I turned vegan, which clearly isn’t the case.

SI: When was the last time you talked to the Shea brothers?

JC: They both sent me a little message saying, pretty much, that they’re sorry it got ugly. One of them said hopefully we can have beers in the future. But they’re not bad people, they’re just them, and that’s the way they are. I just—I didn’t expect it to go the way it did. I’m always willing to make concessions and willing to meet people in the middle. If I start something, I like to finish it, and if we started negotiating, I didn’t want to be sent away or banned. I thought we could finally get it. But it didn’t work out that way.

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Daily Mail has an interview with Joey Chestnut about his July 4 event at Fort Bliss in El Paso and his breakup with Major League Eating. He says he feels bullied by the organization and demands an apology to return to MLE events. He also discusses the possiblity of a Netflix hot dog eating contest on July 4, 2025.

However, he remains hopeful that he can get back to competing on July 4th next year, either with Netflix or at the Nathan’s Famous contest. For him to re-enter the Coney Island event though, he’d need to make up with the event organizers, Major League Eating.

‘I feel bullied,’ Chestnut shared. ‘If I’m ever going to work with them again, they’re going to have to apologize,’ Chestnut said.

According to a statement from spokesman George Shea, Major League Eating said it eventually conceded the sponsorship issue.

‘Unfortunately, this was not enough to get us to an agreement,’ the statement said. ‘We think this is a powerful tribute to our armed forces and we wish Joey the best of luck at his event.’

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update June 18 Results with full names are on the MLE contest page. Dan Downey has a contest video

Full results have been posted without full names:

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update June 19 Kylan Lee has a video

update June 16 Full results were posted this morning:

Top 4 results from the strawberry festival’s facebook video (8 minutes)
1 Geoff Esper 23.75 pounds
2 James Webb 20.5
3 Sean Yeager 16
4 Darrien Thomas 14.5

James Webb is doing a livestream of this afternoon’s strawberry shortcake in Mattituck, NY.

update The livestream was terminated just before results were announced.

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Netflix announced that Joey Chestnut will face off against Takeru Kobayashi in “Unfinished Beef”, a matchup that will be streamed on Labor Day, September 2. The competition will use beef frankfurters. Hollywood Reporter has an article about the program with the following quote from Takeru Kobayashi:

Retiring for me will only happen after I take him down one last time. This rivalry has been brewing for a long time. Competing against Joey live on Netflix means fans all over the world can watch me knock him out.

flashback July 2022 In an interview on the Pardon My Take podcast, Joey Chestnut expressed a desire to compete against Takeru Kobayashi.

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Joey Chestnut announced that he will not be competing in this year’s Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest and his relationship with Major League Eating appears to be over. Via twitter:

I was gutted to learn from the media that after 19 years Im banned from the Nathan’s July 4th Hot Dog Eating Contest. I love competing in that event, I love celebrating America with my fans all over this great country on the 4th and I have been training to defend my title. To set the record straight, I do not have a contract with MLE or Nathans and they are looking to change the rules from past years as it relates to other partners I can work with.This is apparently the basis on which I’m being banned, and it doesn’t impact the July 4th event. Sadly, this is the decision Nathan’s and Major League Eating are making, and it will deprive the great fans of the holiday’s usual joy and entertainment. To my fans, I love you and appreciate you. Rest assured that you’ll see me eat again soon!! STAY HUNGRY!

According to the New York Post, Joey Chestnut’s endorsement deal with Impossible Foods for plant-based frankfurters for $1.2 million over four years was the cause of the breakdown of the relationship. (MLE statement).

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6 hours after the competition, the MLE twitter has yet to post a winner, but the MLE instagram has some results on its stories
49.5 Geoff Esper
31 George Chiger
28 Kylan Lee (Australia)
20 Josh Krady
17.5 Mark Frost

6.75 Julie Goldberg
4.75 Addison Skaggs

update Geoff Esper (49.5) and Julie Goldberg (6.75) were today’s winners via the Lake Compounce instagram stories

Geoff Esper, George Chiger, Josh Krady and Julie Goldberg are expected to compete in this afternoon’s Nathan’s qualifier at Lake Compounce in Bristol, CT.

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update PiZetta Media has a video of the contest

Full results: (8 minutes)

The top 3 from James Webb’s video
1 James Webb 70 donuts, new record
2 Nick Wehry 61
3 Sean Yeager

Salvation Army is doing a facebook live video of today’s donut eating contest in Washington, DC.

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Official results from today’s Nathan’s qualifier at Parma Rib ‘N Rock in Parma, OH. update News 5 Cleveland has an article

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I have started a youtube channel for uploading my competitive eating television archive. The first video is Eric “Badlands” Booker’s “Attack of the Show!” appearance on the G4 network on February 21, 2006. Booker discusses his competitive eating and hiphop career with host Kevin Pereira and then takes on Brendan Hermes in a one minute 100×100 In N Out burger eating contest.

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