Joey Chestnut downs 70 dogs in 10 minutes to regain hot dog eating title

NEW YORK — The champ is back on top.

One year after losing the coveted Mustard Belt to competitor Matt Stonie, Joey "Jaws" Chestnut reclaimed the title of champion during the 2016 Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island.

Chestnut downed 70 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, beating out Stonie by 17 dogs. Both men are from San Jose, California.

With this impressive performance, Chestnut also set the record for the most hot dogs eaten in the contest – breaking a record he set in 2013, when he managed to gobble up 69 dogs and buns in 10 minutes.

"I don't feel so good," he said after the competition, according to WPIX reporter Andrew Ramos. "I'm drunk on hot dogs right now."

Chestnut, 32, won the Mustard Yellow International Belt for eight consecutive years until Stonie edged him out in 2015. In that year, Stonie gobbled up 62 hot dogs and buns to Chestnut's 60.

"He awoke a sleeping giant," Chestnut said of Stonie after Monday's contest.

Contest officials said Chestnut set a new record last month when he ate 73½ hot dogs and buns during a qualifying event.

Cox Media Group