As Joey Chestnut makes his return to Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest Friday, a Massachusetts resident is hoping to beat him out.
Geoffrey Esper, of Oxford, is Major League Eating’s No. 2-ranked eater in the world. He placed second in the 2023 Hot Dog Eating Contest downing 49 hot dogs, two more than third-place finisher James Webb of Australia. He also placed second in 2024 when, for the first time in 16 years, Chestnut did not compete.
Major League Eating, which organizes the annual food-eating contest, previously announced that Chestnut would not be participating in the 2024 Hot Dog Eating Contest due to his choice to represent a “rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs.”
Chestnut holds a world record for eating 73 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
He is returning to the competition in 2025.
“There’s still going to be a good battle for that second spot,” Esper told WCVB. “I think there’s going to be a lot of people within one or two hot dogs of each other for that number 2 spot.”
Esper holds multiple world records, including eating 36 4.5-ounce bratwurst sausages in 10 minutes. And according to ESPN, Esper’s career-best is 51 hot dogs.
His Major League Eating profile bills Esper as “a quiet, industrious man who says very little but eats very much.”
His personal records include eating 9.75 pounds of SPAM from the can in eight minutes, downing 281 Buffalo chicken wings in 12 minutes, and crushing 17.75 bagels (with cream cheese) in eight minutes.
Esper, a high school teacher, previously told WCVB in an interview that his strategy involves separating two hot dogs, eating those, and then dunking the buns in fruit punch to wash them down easier.
The contest is on ESPN2 and ESPN3.
The woman’s competition will start at 10:45 a.m. ET, while the men’s will start at noon. ESPN will air the competition again at 5 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. ET.
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