Next week, July 4th, is Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Championship.

Champion, Takeru 'Tsunami' Kobayashi already lost his world record to 'Jaws' earlier this year. And now he has a bigger obstacle to overcome if he wants to regain the title and the record next week.

He has jaw arthritis. 

No kidding…On his blog, entitled 'Occupational Hazard' he wrote 'my jaw refused to fight any more.

He can only open his mouth the size of a fingertip.

Who would have thought that such a thing could happen to a mouth? Seriously.

The injury came during training for next week's showdown.

Kobayashi wrote,

"I feel ashamed that I couldn't notice the alarm bells set off by my own body. But with the goal to win another title with a new record, I couldn't stop my training so close to the competition. I was continuing my training and bearing with the pain but finally I destroyed my jaw."

The 29-year old is still planning on attending the competition next week.

Maybe a serious dose of ibuprofen will be enough to offset the pain for 12 minutes. But …then there will be less room.

Is Kobayashi sandbagging it?