Arguably the world’s most famous (and prodigious) eater, Joey Chestnut, will return to Buffalo next weekend to see how many chicken wings he can eat.
Chestnut, the number one-ranked competitive eater in the world, along with Miki Sudo, reigning wing eating champion, and other top-ranked Major League Eaters are slated to compete at the Wing It On! U.S. Chicken Wing Eating Championship as part of the National Buffalo Wing Festival at 5 p.m. Sept. 3 at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park.
The contest will be headlined by the greatest talent in the world. In addition to Chestnut and the number three-ranked Miki Sudo, Geoffrey Esper, the number two-ranked eater in the world, and Nick Wehry, the number-four-ranked eater, will be on hand.
Eating competitions at the two-day National Buffalo Wing Festival get underway on Saturday, September 2, at 6 P.M. with the Buffet Bowl, a first-to-finish event featuring a five-pound bowl of local Buffalo cuisine. Last year, Esper demolished the bowl, beating Chestnut and finishing in just 3 minutes and 29 seconds.
On Sunday, Chestnut and Sudo will go head-to-head (wing-to-wing?) at the U.S. Chicken Wing-Eating Championship, a 12-minute, all-you-can-eat contest. Sudo edged out Chestnut at the 2022 event by eating 233 wings in a mere 12 minutes.
“The National Buffalo Wing Festival has been a Labor Day tradition for more than two decades,” said Festival Founder Drew Cerza. “We look forward to celebrating local Buffalo cuisine at the 22nd annual event, culminating with an intense wing-eating showdown featuring our nation’s top-ranked eaters.”
The U.S. National Buffalo Wing-Eating Championship is a contest to see who can consume the most wing meat off the bone. A debris-food, the wings are weighed before and after the contest. At stake over the weekend are the two championship titles and a total of nearly $7,000 in cash prizes.
“What better way to kick-off the unofficial start of fall than with this homage to one of Buffalo’s greatest inventions – the chicken wing,” said Major League Eating Chairman George Shea. “Esper holds the world record of 281 chicken wings, and insiders believe he may be a greater threat to Sudo’s title than Chestnut as victory in this contest hinges on technique rather than pure volume.”
National Buffalo Wing Festival
The National Buffalo Wing Festival takes place over Labor Day Weekend at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo, NY. Part of the proceeds from the festival go to benefit Western New York charities, raising more than $385,000 over the festival’s history. This year marks the festival’s 21st anniversary. For more info, visit: www.buffalowing.com.
Major League Eating
Major League Eating (MLE) is the world governing body of all stomach-centric sports and conducts more than 80 events annually, including the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, N.Y. For more information visit www.MajorLeagueEating.com, www.facebook.com/eatfast, www.twitter.com/eatingcontest.
