Reigning Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Champ Wants To See Joey Chestnut Return
Patrick Bertoletti took home the mustard yellow belt in a Joey Chestnut-less competition
The Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is a 4th of July tradition, but last year's edition felt a little incomplete because 16-time champion and the greatest competitive eater of this generation or any other, Joey Chestnut, was persona non grata on Coney Island.
Chestnut sat out of the 2024 competition due to sponsorship conflicts with Nathan's, and that meant that someone else had to win, and that someone else turned out to be Patrick Bertoletti, who downed 58 hot dogs and buns to take home the mustard yellow belt.
However, Bertoletti is friends with Chestnut and said that not having the GOAT on Coney Island last summer "felt really weird."
Bertoletti said that the recent news of talks between Chestnut — who ate a record 83 hot dogs during a one-on-one contest against fellow glizzy-guzzling legend Takeru Kobayashi that streamed on Netflix in September — and Major League Eating are happening and could lead to a triumphant return to the competition for the man they call, "Jaws."
2024 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Patrick Bertoletti talked about Joey Chestnut's rumored return. (Getty Images)
"If they're talking, that's a good thing," Bertoletti said in an interview with TMZ. "And I think it's a better competition overall if he's there."
It is for sure. I've said it time and time again, Chestnut might be the most dominant athlete — yes, athlete — out there today.
But Bertoletti, who also downed over 220 Wendy's chicken nuggets in eight minutes last summer, knows that to assert himself as the man to beat, he has to defeat the GOAT.
"To be the best, you've got to beat the best," he said.
He does, however, know that if Chestnut does take part in this year's contest, he is going to show up hungry in every conceivable way.
"After a bad breakup, you want your ex to see you with a really hot chick, and you want to prove them wrong and make a statement," Bertoletti said.
It's shaping up to be one heck of a Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.
Say it with me: USA! USA! USA!