Bertoletti wins after Joey Chestnut debacle

There is a new prime canine within the frankfurter consuming world.

Patrick Bertoletti received Nathan’s Scorching Canine Consuming Contest, the annual competitors held on July 4, marking the tip of an period after 16-time winner Joey Chestnut’s falling out with the occasion’s organizer, Main League Consuming.

Bertoletti, 39, from Illinois, consumed 58 scorching canine on this yr’s 10-minute occasion, incomes him the Mustard Yellow Belt within the males’s class. Miki Sudo set a brand new file within the girls’s division with 51 wieners downed. After the meat between Chestnut and MLE, the competition was thought of way more huge open than prior to now a number of years.

MLE introduced final month that it was parting methods with Chestnut, citing a rule that members can not strike endorsement offers with rivals of scorching canine maker Nathan’s. MLE alleged on the time that Chestnut had partnered with a plant-based meat various firm. Chestnut, often known as “Jaws,” has lately begun posting photos on Instagram that characteristic Inconceivable Meals.

“For practically 20 years we have now labored beneath the identical primary scorching canine exclusivity provisions,” the MLE mentioned in an announcement in June. “Nonetheless, plainly Joey and his managers have prioritized a brand new partnership with a special scorching canine model over our long-time relationship.”

Chestnut responded in an announcement on the time that he was “gutted to be taught from the media” of his banishment after 19 years. The 40-year-old claimed he didn’t have a contract with MLE or Nathan’s, and mentioned the endorsement ban was a departure from the group’s guidelines round partnerships in prior years.

“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 mentioned final month.

Whereas the connection seems fried in the intervening time, the MLE known as Chestnut an “American hero” and mentioned it could “love” for him to return when not representing a Nathan’s competitor. Chestnut holds consuming information in 55 classes, together with eggs, hen wings and apple pies, the MLE instructed NBC Information.

Nathan’s web site additionally nonetheless showers Chestnut in reward. In a bit saying his 2023 win, the New York-based firm wrote that “there isn’t any doubt in our thoughts who’s the king.”

Throughout ESPN’s broadcast of the 2024 contest, the channel made a number of mentions of Chestnut and what the competitors seems like with out him. In a single reference, Chestnut was known as the “Warren Buffett of the buffet.”

Chestnut followers can nonetheless see him in motion this vacation.

He is livestreaming a scorching canine consuming contest from the Fort Bliss military base in Texas as a fundraiser for charity, in line with a latest Instagram submit. The present begins at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday.

“The 4th would not be the identical if I wasn’t celebrating by consuming an entire lot of all-beef scorching canine,” he wrote.