Meet Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti. This 22-year old from Chicago is on the verge of becoming the world’s #1 competitive eater. Famous for his mohawk, headbands and wearing headphones while he eats, in the past three weeks Bertoletti has won the grit eating competition in Louisiana, the waffle eating competition in Texas, and just the other day, he ate 4.05 pounds of Chicken Wing’s in 8 minutes to win the Chicken Wing showdown.

Why is this so surprising? Well, because less than one year ago, Takeru Kobayashi was considered unbeatable. Undefeated on American soil, he was famous for his victories in the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest, where he would beat other contestants by more than 10 hot dogs without even breaking a sweat. Kobayashi took the “sport” of competitive eating beyond the bunch of fat, fat, fatties it had been before, and proved that a tiny guy with an iron stomach could not just win, but crush the competition.

But in this past July’s hot-dog eating contest, Kobayashi lost for the first time ever on American soil, bested by American Joey Chestnut. Slowed by an alleged “slow jaw”, Kobayashi lost his spot as the #1 ranked competitive eater to Chestnut, who seemed to be the new force in competitive eating.

Kobayashi and Chestnut

But just a few months later, the tide seems to have turned again. After defeating Kobayashi in the chicken wing eating contest and beating Chestnut in all three contests (grits, waffles, chicken wings), Bertoletti seems poised to seize the #1 spot (I have no idea how the rankings work, but one would assume defeating the #1 guy three times in three weeks would put him close to passing him).

So all hail Pat Bertoletti, the world’s new #1 competitive eater. Oh yeah, and he’s single ladies.

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