“Josh Fight” Draws Hundreds to Fight for the Name “Josh”; 4YO Boy Emerges as Supreme Josh

By
Rachel Leong
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If you’re like me, you might have struggled with having a common name. Like, a really, really common name.

I’m talking to you, the Rachels/Sarahs/Megans/Ethans/Ryans/Bryans of Singapore.

My Basic Name Brethren may know the pain of having someone with the same name in your classroom or workplace—then the only way to differentiate yourself becomes your surname.

Don’t we sometimes say to ourselves: “Darn, I wish that I was the only one with this name”?

Well, it looks like one man had the exact same thought.

Forget your UFC or MMA fights. The most legendary battle of all is this one: The Josh Fight.

How It Began

The genius idea began with a 22-year-old college student from Arizona named Josh Swain.

About a year ago, he made a group with as many people he could find on Facebook with the exact same name—both first and last names—as him. In his reddit post, Swain explained that “under a spell of pandemic boredom”, he jokingly challenged all the Josh Swains to a fight to keep said name.

Swain was not playing. Issuing a date, time, and a set of coordinates, he “menacingly” announced a fight. “[W]hoever wins gets to keep the name, everyone else has to change their name,” he challenged.

“[Y]ou have a year to prepare, good luck,” Swain concluded.

Of course, Swain didn’t actually want a fight to the death amongst the Josh Swains of the world, but when he posted the screenshots of his Facebook shenanigans to his Twitter account, netizens “ran with it”.

A flurry of meme-filled replies later (in true Gen Z style), Swain ultimately got convinced to actually journey to Lincoln, Nebraska, to “defend his name”.

Of course, when things go viral like this, they quickly become a lot more than we expected. While Swain’s initial challenge was to the Josh Swains in the United States, the challenge expanded to include all Joshes.

As you can imagine, that’s a lot of Joshes.

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“Josh Fight” Draws Hundreds to Fight for the Name “Josh”

A year later, the fateful fight took place on Saturday (24 Apr).

The location was changed to Air Park Green Area in Lincoln, Nebraska, since the initial coordinates Swain picked were at random. Said coordinates landed on a farm owner’s land who unfortunately “did not agree to host such a ridiculous event”.

(Well, he clearly wasn’t a Josh.)

Anyways, several hundreds turned up for what I call the Josh Joust, comprising not only the Joshes but also their respective supporters. There were many to root for, but they were all known by one name (evidently): Josh.

Which obviously, made for a lot of unique showcases of support.

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The Josh Fight ended up being also a food drive and fundraiser. It reportedly ended up raising over $10,000 for the Children’s Hospital & Medical Center Foundation, which provides medical services to children across Nebraska, and “brought in non-perishable food for the Lincoln Food Bank”.

See, no violence for a good cause!

KLKN reporter, Yousef Nasser, was present at the scene to report live on what would be the fight of the century.

And with that, several rounds of the Josh Fight ensued.

Josh vs Josh vs Josh

The audience present at Saturday (24 Apr)’s fight saw double, however: there was not one, but two Josh Swains! Of course, it was then necessary for the Josh Swains to duke it out before the main event.

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Josh Swain of Arizona (the original organiser of this whole shindig) and Josh Swain of Omaha, Nebraska, fought a hard, nerve-wracking “rock, paper, scissors” battle.

In the end, the OG Josh Swain of Arizona emerged the winner, beating the other Swain’s scissors with his rock.

After the clash of the Swains was a pool noodle fight (yeah, like those long foam thingies you bring when you go swimming), and tensions ran high as Joshes waited eagerly to prove that they were the chosen one to wield the glorious name of Josh.

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Finally, the long-awaited brawl began.

The pool noodle fight was the second fight of the day, opened to everyone whose first name was Josh. In the third and final round, an all-in battle was opened to anyone who had a pool noodle and was willing to participate.

Pandemonium broke out as Joshes vied to be the one, the only, the true Josh. But after a long, hard fight, only one single Josh emerged from the defeated masses as the ultimate champion.

4YO Boy Emerges as Supreme Josh

The eventual victor of the Josh Fight was 4-year-old Lincoln resident Josh Vinson, Jr.—or “Little Josh”, as named by the other Joshes.

When interviewed about his thoughts on “the big win”, Little Josh only responded with a cool, calm: “I always fight everyone.”

Words that can only be spoken by a true legend.

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Little Josh was subsequently crowned with a Burger King paper crown like the king he is, and also given a replica of an AEW World Championship belt. He was also hoisted up and cheered on by the other Joshes in a heartwarming show of sportsmanship.

Organiser Josh Swain—now holding the title of “THE Josh Swain”, mind you—made a lovely reddit post thanking everyone for Saturday (24 Apr)’s event. He admitted to not having “a single idea how the event would play out”, but was thankful that all participants were “incredibly respectful, polite, joyful, and just awesome overall.”

Calling the Josh Fight “one of the greatest events of [his] entire life”, he expressed hope that everyone had as much fun as he did.

Apparently, some redditors have suggested making this name battle a yearly event, with a new name, location, and good cause each time. Reportedly, a possible name for next year is “Jenny Smith” according to National Public Radio (NPR), so if you’re a Jenny, you’d better watch your back.

Feature Image: Twitter (@YousefKLKN)

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Rachel Leong
Email: [email protected]