There are a handful of athletes who’ve undeniably dominated their particular person sports activities. Golfer Tiger Woods received 15 main tournaments and a staggering 82 PGA Tour occasions. Tennis participant Serena Williams is the one participant in historical past to have received a profession “Golden Slam” in each singles and doubles. And aggressive eater Joey Chestnut has chewed and digested his approach via 16 Nathan’s Well-known Scorching Canine Consuming Contests, together with a successful streak that stretches again to 2016. 

However this July 4, a brand new champion will likely be handed the Mustard Belt — as a result of Chestnut has been banned from coming into this 12 months’s competitors. The explanation? He’s agreed to a sponsorship take care of Not possible Meals and their plant-based sizzling canines. 

“We’re devastated to study that Joey Chestnut has chosen to characterize a rival model that sells plant-based sizzling canines moderately than competing within the 2024 Nathan’s Well-known Fourth of July Scorching Canine Consuming Contest,” Main League Consuming (MLE), the occasion’s governing physique, mentioned in an announcement. 

“MLE and Nathan’s went to nice lengths in latest months to accommodate Joey and his administration workforce, agreeing to the looks price and permitting Joey to compete in a rival unbranded sizzling canine consuming contest on Labor Day. For practically 20 years we’ve got labored beneath the identical fundamental sizzling canine exclusivity provisions. Nevertheless, evidently Joey and his managers have prioritized a brand new partnership with a special sizzling canine model over our long-time relationship,” MLE continued. (Based on The Hollywood Reporter, the “unbranded sizzling canine consuming contest” will likely be broadcast on Netflix.) 

In a assertion posted to X, the social media platform previously generally known as Twitter, Chestnut wrote that he was “gutted” when he discovered he can be banned from the competition. 

“I like competing in that occasion, I like celebrating America with my followers throughout this nice nation on the 4th and I’ve been coaching to defend my title,” he wrote. “To my followers, I like you and respect you. Relaxation assured that you just’ll see me eat once more quickly!! STAY HUNGRY!” 

Chestnut first entered the competition in 2005 and took third place with 32 sizzling canines, following fellow sizzling dog-downing legends Takeru Kobayashi and Sonya Thomas. He received for the primary time in 2007, beating Kobayashi and setting a then-record of 66 sizzling canines. That began an eight-year successful streak that led to 2015, when Matt Stonie out-ate him by two canines.

Chestnut was again on prime in 2016, and has received the competition yearly since. He’s additionally continued to interrupt his personal information; the present excessive mark for decent canine consuming is 76 canines in 10 minutes, a report Chestnut set in 2021. 

MLE has mentioned that Chestnut just isn’t completely banned from the competition, and that he’ll be allowed to re-enter if he ends his relationship with “rival model” Not possible Meals. In Chestnut’s absence, the oddsmakers have declared Geoffrey Esper to be this 12 months’s favourite. He completed in second place final 12 months, consuming 49 canines to Chestnut’s 62.