When most people think of the name Kobayashi, they think of the amazing eater who dominated the Nathan’s Coney Island 4th of July hot dog contest until Joey Chestnut came along. When I think of the name “Kobayashi,” I think of the character from The Usual Suspects first, but the eater guy isn’t bad either. Anyway, Kobayashi didn’t compete in the eating contest this year because of a contract dispute with Major League Eating. Seriously. Kobayashi was holding out because he wants to be free to participate in contests governed by other sanctioning bodies. He was in attendance for the contest but he only watched from the crowd. After the event, Kobayashi tried to rush the stage and wound up getting arrested for trespassing. Check out this video of Takeru Kobayashi arrested for trespassing at the hot dog contest:
The whole thing looked contrived and a little too WWE for me, but it could have been legit for all we know. I’m guessing Kobayashi just isn’t happy about Chestnut taking over his crown as the best competitive eater around. That’s four straight hot dog titles for Chestnut; Kobayashi hasn’t won since 2006.
Video Credit: YouTube user TheUMassBlog
