Competitive eating: a sport which garners (and rightfully so) immense amounts of respect from its fans and critics alike. Gross as it may be, there's something intrinsically fascinating about watching a human being eat an insane amount of hot dogs incredibly quick. And you can't mention hot dogs without talking about the godfather of competitive eating, The Legend Himself: Takeru Kobayashi.

The Champion of Chew, The Masticating Machine, The Sultan of Swallow

The man is at the top of his class in competitive eating, holding over a dozen world eating records. But none of those records are more impressive than when Kobayashi did battle with a 1089lb Kodiak bear named The Beast, an event some would say even puts The Rumble in the Jungle to shame.

Sorry guys, it's just not as impressive anymore.

Aired in 2003 on Fox's "Man vs Beast", Kobayashi challenged a literal bear to a hot dog eating competition. See the video below:

While Kobyashi lost to The Beast, he claims that he won vs the bear during practice rehearsal. I personally think he's telling the truth. I'm an avid Kobayashi researcher and you can tell by his form that he's going easy on the bear in that video.

Y'er a bum, Beast!

What do you think? Did he let the bear win?


Sources: Pixabay, Wikipedia