Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest 2016 [POLL]: It's Joey Chestnut vs. Matt Stonie - Who'll Win? The Odds, TV Channel Info and Live Streaming

By Nazrene Lagrimas, CP Contributor Saturday, July 02, 2016

Being one of the most in-demand sporting events of the year, the excitement among audiences and participants continues to rise as the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest for the 2016 4th of July is fast approaching. While the contest will start officially at 10:00 a.m., the main event will not start until 12:00 p.m ET. The TV broadcast and live online streaming will be made available by ESPN.

Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest is an annual eating competition which occurs in Coney Island annually every Fourth of July. The contest originated in 1972 by Nathan Handwerker. In the early 90s, the competition was dominated by the contestants from other nationalities, particularly the Japanese. It has then gained public interests in the recent years.

This year, the competition gets more enthusiastic as viewers keep on wondering who will bag 2016's "bejeweled" mustard-yellow belt. It's definitely going to be a show down between Matt Stonie vs Joey Chestnut.

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Competitive eaters on the loop:
Sadly, the competition is not generally open for all. Every participant must meet certain requirements and qualifications as sanctioned by the International Federation of Competitive Eating/Major League Eating. Below are some names of the competitive eaters for this year's contest:

1. Matt "Megatoad" Stonie – Stonie won the contest in 2015, defeating the eight-time champion Joey Chestnut with a record of 62 hotdogs in 10 minutes. Stonie believes that this year is going to be a tough fight.
2. Joey Chestnut – Chestnut became the record holder after setting a record of 69 hotdogs and buns in 10 minutes in 2013. Last week, he set a record of 73 hot dogs and a half and buns in Washington, DC. Many people are expecting for his comeback.
3. Rich Le Fevre
4. Eric "Badlands" Booker
5. Marcus "Monster" Owers
6. Brian Dudzinski
7. Crazy Legs Conti
8. Juan Rodriguez
9. Adrian Morgan
10. Steven Schuster
11. Geoffrey Esper
12. Gideon Oji

Based on an online poll, the odds of Matt Stonie repeating a back-to-back championship is 37%.Joey Chestnut on the other hand is favored to win this year's contest by 59%. 4% of the remaining voters believe that an underdong will take the belt as shown below per Nathan's Hot Dogs website:

Fun Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Facts:
Before going to the event, don't miss checking on this top fun facts you must know.

1. Nathan's Famous Hotdog was founded by Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker. The hot dogs he sold were manufactured based on his wife's recipe.
2. Feminine vibe. Sonya Thomas has raised the women's flag when she set a record of of 45 hotdogs in 10 minutes. She also became a three-time champion since 2011 but later on was defeated by Miki Sudo in 2014.
3. There have been approximately 435 million Nathan's Famous Hotdogs sold in all 50 states and 40,000 food service and retail outlets.
4. New York City ex-mayor" Rudy Giuliani has declared Nathan's as the "World's best hotdog."
5. The last woman to win past third place was Birgit Felden in 1984. She was also the first non-American to win the contest after eating approximately 9 hotdogs in 10 minutes.
6. Famous personalities, and politicians have also been patronizing Nathan's Famous Hotdog. Even actor Walter Mathau requested Nathan's hot dogs to be served in his funeral as written in his Last Will and Testament.