How Much is Joey Chestnut Worth as He Defends His Hot Dog Eating Championship?
John Minchillo / AP / Shutterstock.com  Eating 141 hardboiled eggs in eight minutes is a weird way to earn a buck. As is eating 390 shrimp wontons in eight minutes, 165 pierogi in eight minutes, or 257 Hostess donettes in six minutes. See: Hot Dogs, Watermelon and More BBQ Foods Now Have Mega-High Prices, Thanks to Inflation  Find: LeBron James, David Beckham and the Richest Athletes In The World    Those are just a few of Joey Chestnuts world records, and those bucks add up. The Michael Jordan of demolishing ridiculous portions of ridiculous things, Joey Chestnut has eaten his way into fame and fortune. On July 4, Chestnut will defend his title on ESPN at the Nathans Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney, Island, N.Y. Last year, he broke his own world record by eating 75 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Thats about 16 pounds worth, which is the equivalent of 42 billiards balls  or one great, big pile of money. Joey Chestnut Munched His Way to Millions  Joey Chestnut has a net worth of $2 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth, an impressive feat for a competitive eater. The sport is, after all, a niche and a novelty where big bucks dont come easy. Make Your Money Work for You  Interesting: Hot Dog Eating and 11 Surprising Sports You Can Still Bet On  Just look at Nathans, which hosts the most famous competitive eating event in the world by far. The Major League Eating website states that the Nathans Famous finals are our Masters, our World Cup, our Super Bowl.  But even the most esteemed contest in the world pays a grand prize of only $10,000. Thats less than 50 cents per calorie for the 21,750 calories the man known as Jaws consumed in 2020. In fact, the events entire purse is only $40,000, and thats spread out across 10 combined placing competitors in the mens and womens divisions. Last years womens champion, Miki Sudo, set a world record of her own with 48.5 hot dogs eaten for her record-breaking seventh straight title. It was Chestnuts 13th. Jaws Didnt Get To Quit His Day Job Right Away  Chestnut was a student at San Jose University when he became a competitive eater in 2005. He won his first contest that year when he downed six-and-a-half pounds of asparagus in 11.5 minutes. He also socked away 32 dogs after qualifying for Nathans for the first time during that same rookie-year run. For context as to how hard it is for competitive eaters to earn a living, Chestnut  despite competing in the sports most revered event  wasnt able to quit his construction management job and compete full time for six more years in 2011. Discover: 53 Biggest Sports Contracts Ever    That was the year he rose to stardom after defeating the great Takeru Kobayashi, who  more than any other eater  popularized the sport in its early days and made Chestnuts incredible success possible. Three years later in 2014, Joey Chestnut earned $230,000, according to USA Today. In 2019, the New York Post reported that there are roughly 3,500 competitive eating contests every year in the United States. The average purse ranges from $1,000-$8,500, which means the only way to make any real money is to compete and win all year along  something Chestnut clearly did. In fact, he competed and won enough to earn $600,000 between the start of his career through 2019. His 13 Nathans titles alone have earned him $130,000. Make Your Money Work for You  But Chestnut is the greatest competitive eater of all time, and no one since Kobayashi has come close to matching his prowess or celebrity. That gives Chestnut money-making opportunities that his colleagues dont enjoy. See: Sports Championships Where the Loser Makes Pretty Good Money  Find: Michael Jordans $500,000 Sneakers and More Insanely Expensive Sports Memorabilia    He launched his own line of condiments, although its unclear if hes profiting from it, and according to AthleteSpeakers.com, Chestnut commands $5,000-$10,000 in speaking and appearance fees. According to SportingNews, Chestnut also has social media-based endorsement deals with Hooters, Hostess, Coney Island IPA and perhaps most fittingly, Pepto Bismol. More From GOBankingRates:  Last updated: July 1, 2021