Joey Chestnut to Face Soldiers in Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4 amid Nathan's Ban

Amid a ban from the 2024 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, competitive eater Joey Chesnut will face soldiers in a hot dog eating contest on July 4, the same day as the event he's unable to compete in.

The event will take place at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, and he will compete against U.S. soldiers, per the Associated Press (h/t the New York Post).

The event in El Paso will have slightly different rules than the Nathan's contest. Rather than the 10-minute time frame fans are used to seeing, the competition will instead be five minutes long.

He will also be competing against four soldiers at once rather than taking on individual competitors. Obviously, he won't be facing the world's best professional eaters, so trying to out-eat four soldiers at once will serve as a way to push him to still be competitive while away from the Nathan's competition.

"If they (each) break ten, that'd be pretty good," Chestnut said.

Around 15,000 people will be in attendance at Fort Bliss to see the competition, which is a part of the annual "Pop Goes the Fort" celebration, which will feature a handful of events, performances and fireworks.

Competing against soldiers will be good practice for Chesnut while he's away from the world-famous Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. The 16-time winner of the event and reigning champion was barred from competing after signing an endorsement with Impossible Foods, a plant-based competitor of the hot dog brand.

Along with competing at Fort Bliss on July 4, Chesnut will face off against fellow competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi in a hot eating contest on Sept. 2 with the event streaming live on Netflix.