Hot Dog Eating Contest Record Broken

The hot dog eating reign of Takeru Kobayashi is a thing of the past. Kobayashi has won the famous Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest a record six times, and is considered the top ranked eater by the International Federation of Competitive Eating.

This past Saturday, June 6, Kobayashi’s record of 53¾ hot dogs — with buns — in 12 minutes was shattered by Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, who ate a whopping 59.5 hot dogs. This wasn’t for the Nathan’s championship, however. Joey was practicing for the July 4th main event at the Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe when he beat Kobayashi’s record by nearly 6 hot dogs. (Check out a video of the action after the jump.)

Will he be able to repeat the performance on July 4th? We’ll see.