Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo gained the lads’s and ladies’s editions, respectively, of the 2025 Nathan’s Well-known Worldwide Scorching Canine Consuming Contest.
Chestnut ate 70.5 scorching canine and buns in 10 minutes, and Sudo downed 33 scorching canine and buns.
Each Chestnut and Sudo are previous winners and the highest female and male champions of all time, profitable their seventeenth and eleventh titles general with their victories this 12 months. Whereas Sudo was defending her prime end from final 12 months, Chestnut returned after he was banned from final 12 months’s occasion over a sponsorship with Unimaginable Meals.
Chestnut’s absence from the 2024 occasion, his first in practically 20 years, got here after the aggressive eater signed a deal to be a spokesperson for Unimaginable Meals, which launched a plant-based scorching canine final 12 months. The deal, Main League Consuming claimed, went in opposition to the model’s exclusivity guidelines for the competitors.
“For practically twenty years we’ve got labored below the identical fundamental scorching canine exclusivity provisions,” Main League Consuming mentioned in an announcement in June 2024. “Nonetheless, evidently Joey and his managers have prioritized a brand new partnership with a special scorching canine model over our long-time relationship.”
Chestnut mentioned he was “gutted” to be taught he wouldn’t have the ability to compete final 12 months.
“To set the document straight, I shouldn’t have a contract with MLE or Nathans they usually want to change the foundations from previous years because it pertains to different companions I can work with,” Chestnut wrote on X at the time. “Sadly, that is the choice Nathan’s and Main League Consuming are making, and it’ll deprive the nice followers of the vacation’s normal pleasure and leisure.”
As a substitute, Chestnut competed in a July 4 contest at an Military base in El Paso, Texas, with Patrick Bertoletti, who got here in second on this 12 months’s competitors, profitable the 2024 Nathan’s Well-known Worldwide Scorching Canine Consuming Contest.
Chestnut later confronted off in opposition to longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi, and emerged victorious, in a Netflix live-streamed Labor Day aggressive consuming contest.
However in June 2025, Chestnut introduced that he’d be returning to Coney Island for the Nathan’s occasion.
“This occasion means the world to me. It’s a cherished custom, a celebration of American tradition and an enormous a part of my life,” Chestnut mentioned in his social media announcement. “I’m excited to be again on the Coney Island stage, doing what I stay to do, and celebrating the Fourth of July with scorching canine in my fingers!”
As for what introduced Chestnut again, he mentioned on social media that there have been “variations in interpretation” however that he and organizers have been in a position to “discover frequent floor.”
“Whereas I’ve and proceed to accomplice with quite a lot of firms, together with some within the plant-based house, these relationships have been by no means a battle with my love for warm canine,” he wrote. “To be clear: Nathan’s is the one scorching canine firm I’ve ever labored with.”
Main League Consuming confirmed that Chestnut could be again on the Nathan’s Well-known occasion, and its cofounder and emcee George Shea told NPR, “we have been in a position to come collectively and I feel everyone was enthusiastic about that.” He declined to touch upon particulars of the settlement.
“Main League Consuming is extraordinarily excited that Joey can be returning to the 4th of July occasion this 12 months, and it actually would be the biggest sporting occasion within the historical past of sports activities,” Shea mentioned. “We’re excited, the followers are excited and it was kind of all programs go for the 4th.”
Chestnut, in the meantime, told the Associated Press, that although he by no means appeared in any commercials for Unimaginable Meals’ plant-based canine, he “ought to have made that extra clear with Nathan’s.”
In a pre-taped interview that aired on ESPN as a part of its annual protection of the new canine consuming contest, Chestnut mentioned it “took a bit of little bit of speaking” and referenced some “egos” and communication that introduced him again to the Coney Island stage. However, he mentioned, he by no means gave up hope he’d be again.
Each Chestnut and Sudo informed ESPN they felt they might’ve finished higher, regardless of their victories.
“I want I ate a hell of much more, sorry guys, however I’ll be again subsequent 12 months,” Chestnut mentioned on ESPN after his win.
Later he famous that he was “nervous” and mentioned, “The primary couple scorching canine I used to be fumbling a bit of.”
However in the end, he “discovered a rhythm” and whereas his aim was to eat “between 70 and 77,” he “wished a bit extra.”
“Exhibiting up is the toughest half typically,” he mentioned. “I really like doing it and pushing myself.”
Joey Chestnut, carrying his championship belt and holding a platter of scorching canine, after profitable the 2025 Nathan’s Well-known Worldwide Scorching Canine Consuming Contest.
Adam Grey/Getty Pictures
Sudo’s complete in the meantime was down from the 51 scorching canine and buns she ate final 12 months.
“I really feel like I let the followers down a bit of bit. I heard folks within the crowd saying, ‘Go for 52,’” Sudo told ESPN. “Clearly, I’m all the time setting my targets excessive, however the scorching canine weren’t cooperating. For some purpose, the buns felt bigger immediately.”
The full prize for the competition is $40,000, cut up between the lads’s and ladies’s divisions, according to ESPN. The primary place finisher will get $10,000, second place will get $5,000 and third place will get $2,500.
This 12 months’s occasion happened, as normal, outdoors the unique Nathan’s location in Coney Island, New York, and aired on ESPN2 and ESPN3. Followers who missed seeing who turned the highest canine of each contests can take a look at replays at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. PT on Friday.
ESPN’s platforms have aired the new canine consuming contest since 2004 and inked a brand new take care of the Worldwide Federation of Aggressive Consuming in 2022, extending the partnership via 2029.
This 12 months, Ryan Reynolds additionally received in on the motion, starring in an advert that aired a number of instances through the Nathan’s competitors on ESPN2. Within the business, the Deadpool star joined scorching canine world celeb Richard Galanti, the previous CFO of Costco, which has bought a $1.50 scorching canine and soda meal for the previous 40 years, with out elevating the value. Galanti was one of many Costco executives who helped hold the value down. The advert, which introduces Galanti as Mint Cell’s Chief Anti-Inflation Officer, highlights how plans from the wi-fi firm that was bought to T-Cell two years in the past have stayed at $15 since launch.
The business aired in at the very least two prime slots, the primary break of ESPN’s hourlong broadcast and the break earlier than the winner within the males’s competitors was introduced.