![]() ![]() “After enjoying my own freedom, I’ve realized I have this growing sense of how satisfied and happy I am that I made the choice to not be with something I didn’t believe in. ![]() “I don’t like their mentality, and so I have no desire at all to go back there,” he explains. ![]() The legend has never returned to Nathan’s annual July 4th spectacular, and according to him, he never will. That rift came to a head at the 2010 competition, when Kobayashi refused to participate-and then, after jumping on the Nathan’s stage while wearing a “Free Kobi” T-shirt, was arrested and taken away in handcuffs. Kobayashi’s issues with Chestnut are, as Nicole Lucas Haimes’ documentary lays out in entertaining fashion, directly related to his problems with MLE founder Shea, who alienated Kobayashi in the mid-2000s by locking him into contracts that only allowed Kobayashi to compete in MLE-sanctioned events. It’s stressful for me to compete against, much less be around, a person who has that kind of personality. The face he gives you in the movie-he says something different every time, so it’s difficult for me to trust that those are his words, or if they’re George Shea’s scripted words, and where his feelings are coming from. I don’t even want to be in the same room with him. Nonetheless, “If you ask me, do I want to compete with him? Mmm, not necessarily. “Yes, if he came out and he wanted to compete-or the people really said we want to see you compete-and it was not on that stage with those people, I would do it, of course,” he confirms. Not that Kobayashi is particularly eager to get back in the proverbial ring with Chestnut. It’s an alternately thrilling, funny and messy tale of rivalry, innovation, ambition and engorged stomachs, and one that feels like it’s the prelude to a Rocky-style comeback sequel in which Kobayashi returns to the MLE fold to once more take on Chestnut. The tumultuous saga of Kobayashi and Chestnut is the subject of ESPN’s latest “30 for 30” documentary, The Good, The Bad, The Hungry, which details the stratospheric rise and controversial fall of Kobayashi, whose reign was cut short by losses to Chestnut (winner of 11 Nathan’s contests, and a multi-world record holder), a falling-out with Major League Eating (MLE) and its co-founder George Shea, and an eye-opening arrest at the 2010 Nathan’s event. That feat thrust Kobayashi to instant superstardom, and his subsequent five wins at the famed July 4th competition only solidified his standing as the king of the eating world-a title he’d only officially relinquish in 2007, when American Joey Chestnut dethroned him at the Nathan’s extravaganza. The godfather of competitive eating, Takeru Kobayashi burst onto the American scene at the 2001 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, where the lithe 5-foot-8 Japanese 23-year-old, using a revolutionary water-dipping technique and a body-wiggling maneuver known as the “Kobayashi Shake,” ate an astounding 50 hot dogs-double the prior record. A select few athletes are so iconic, they’re known by a single name. ![]()
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