Hooters 2013 Worldwide Wing-Eating Championship Comes to Clearwater

There can be only one.

Joey Chestnut and some of the world's other top competitive eaters descend on Clearwater to see who will be crowned winner at the Hooters World Wing-Eating Championship at 7 p.m. July 25.

Contestants will eat their way to $12,500 in prizes for downing the most wings in 10 minutes.

Chestnut defends his title against 15 other contestants, including Miki Sudo and Michelle Lesco, two up-and-coming female competitive eaters.

Both women beat Chestnut in a rib-eating contest in Chicago earlier this year. Sudo is ranked as the No. 7 eater in the world, according to Major League Eating, the competitive eating governing body.

Lesco, the No. 14-ranked eater worldwide, ate 150 wings in 10 minutes at a qualifying event in Cincinnati earlier this year a day after besting Chestnut in the rib competition, according to WCPO.com.

Chestnut ate 144 wings in 10 minutes to win the wing championship last year.

The event is the kickoff to a weekend celebration that culminates with National Chicken Wing Day July 29, when Hooters locations across the country will offer a special all-you-can-eat chicken wing deal to challenge wing-eating enthusiasts to collectively eat a million chicken wings in a day.

The prize purse breakdown:

First: $6,000

Second: $3,000

Third: $1,750

Fourth: $1,000

Fifth: $500

Sixth: $250

If you go:

What: Hooters World Wing-Eating Championship

When: 7 p.m. July 25

Where: Original Hooters, 2800 Gulf to Bay Blvd.

Cost: Free to watch. A special block party starts at 6 p.m. featuring live entertainment by the Black Honkeys.

Parking: There is limited space in the Hooters parking lot. Best to try and carpool.