Stories From The Table
What is one of your greatest wins in competitive eating?
I'd say my greatest win was probably- it was the fried peanut butter and banana sandwich eating contest. It's called the Alpha Sandwich and it's peanut butter and banana fried between two pieces of bread and in the contest you had to drink buttermilk with it. You only had to drink so much buttermilk, but the person who was pointed to win was Joe Manchetti. And you had to eat fourteen sandwiches the fastest. And he's an extremely fast eater and I really did not feel that - I don't think anyone thought I was going to win that contest. And I beat, I beat Joe and I think that it surprised him too. He says it was only by a bite, but whenever he says only by a bite he means half a sandwich. That's for you Joe.
What is one of your greatest losses in competitive eating?
I'll say I feel like my biggest loss in competitive eating is whenever I was in Madison, Wisconsin. It was this past summer. I was eating steamed frog legs. And I've had frog legs in the past. I've eaten fried, I've eaten them steamed. I've eaten them a lot of different ways. And in this contest, well I've never eaten them competitively. And that's the thing I just underestimated. I just didn't train for them. I didn't think it would be any problem. And as I was eating them the meat was falling off the bone, I didn't want to swallow bones and I was kind of getting nervous. And it was a whole bunch of different factors, short contest, whatever. And a local guy, that is his first contest whatever. He beat myself, another pro. It was just, it was very embarrassing. I'm not a fan of losing to the local guy. It happens. It's happened but, it was just bad.
Who do you love to compete against?
I love competing against people that value the sport as what it is. Take it mildly seriously. Like they realize that you're not just getting up there to eat. You have either trained to get to the level that you're at, or you've achieved enough to be able to compete that well. Person wise, Mark Lyle. I love competing against German Jetty, Goose Gilbert. I'd love to go against Sheroda, you know some more people that you guys can Google. Yamamoto that's some Japanese, Kobeoshi, Pat Bertiletti, Joey Chestnut, Sonny Thomas, Tim Jamis, Hal Hunt. I could go on for days.
Where do you see competitive eating contests heading?
I think competitive eating can go two ways. As it's going right now, it's getting bigger every year. Like I said, ESPN is talking about huge rates in viewership. Spike TV has picked up competitive eating. It's being covered. I know a lot of independent events I've been to, it's being filmed. There are always news spots, it's in the media. It's covered a lot by a lot of things. So, based on that alone it's growing. However, if people get tired of seeing hot dogs being dunked in water or you know, people sitting around eating burgers, there is a burnout possibility. Then people are like, this is gross, I don't want to do this anymore, we don't care. It could go either way. I think it's going to get more popular. I mean, you guys are filming me today.
Are competitive eating competitions the greatest sport in the world?
Competitive eating is not the greatest sport in the world and I think that anyone that said that it was, they are uneducated, uncultured. No, that is personal opinion. I think it is great. I have fun with it but it is a different amount of athleticism that is required in competitive eating. And I think that, you know, if it is not in the Olympics then it should not be considered one of the greatest sports in the world.
