Hot Dog Legend Turning Chicken?

Japanese hot dog legend Takeru Kobayashi just hasn’t been the same since he lost his hot dog crown this summer – and people are starting to wonder whether he can still stomach the competition.

“I have the highest respect for him. But I don’t think he likes to lose” Joey Chestnut told me, just days after he was anointed the new burger king, becoming the first man to eat 103 Krystal burgers at the Oct. 27 Krystal Square-Off.

Kobayashi didn’t even defend his title, worth $10,000 in prize money, dropping out just days before the event, claiming lingering jaw pain from having a wisdom tooth extracted in June.

That’s an awful long time to be nursing a sore mouth. At Coney Island, nobody questioned that excuse. But five month later, it’s time to ask questions.

The 160-pound, 29-year-old Kobayashi is a god on the eating circuit (58 Johnsonville Brats in 10 minutes, 20 pounds of rice balls in 30 minutes), but he came in third in the chicken wing "Chowdown" earlier in October to Chestnut and winner Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti.

“He could be rattled,” Bertoletti told About.com. “I don’t want to call him out, because he’s been so great. We all want to see him compete again. But when will that be?

For his own part, Chestnut isn't losing his appetite, he even offered us some holiday eating tips.

Photo © IFOCE