A Heap of Guys Named Josh Had a "Josh Fight" and the Youngest Josh Won

May this be written in the history books.

If you’ve been on the internet at all lately, you might have seen a few posts about a "Josh fight" and memes referencing the event.

Considering most of us thought that this was just another joke to scroll past, we were all a bit shocked to find out that a bunch of dudes named Josh actually took the meme seriously and literally battled it out for the name… with pool noodles.

While “fight” sounds kind of violent and not-so-friendly, the battle was actually wholesome as heck, with the participants naming the youngest contestant—a five-year-old boy named Josh—the winner.

If you’re not hella confused, we’d be surprised. So, here’s our explanation on what the Josh fight actually was, and why it went down.

Why was there a Josh battle?

So, to give you the context you need, we’ve gotta go back in time exactly a year ago, when a dude named Josh Swain created a Facebook group chat with a heap of other blokes named Josh in it.

Swain sent all the Josh’s instructions and coordinates to a fight on the 24 April 2021 at a random location near the Lincoln Airport in Nebraska.

there can only be one pic.twitter.com/VPamxjJ0yL

— joshua swain (@joshswainaz) April 24, 2020

“Precisely, 4/24/2021, 12:00PM, meet at these coordinates, (40.8223286, - 96.7982002) we fight, whoever wins gets to keep the name, everyone else has to change their name, you have a year to prepare, good luck,” the original Facebook message read.

Clearly, even Swain meant the message as a joke. However, as it turns out, some of the members of the group chat decided to push on with the plans, and the real event actually ended up taking place over the weekend at Air Park in Lincoln.

In a fundraising page for the event, Swain explained that he never expected anyone to take the joke seriously, let alone remember it a year down the track.

“This was a complete joke, and I have posted jokes to my Twitter before, but when I posted the screenshots to my Twitter here, the internet ran with it, and ran with enough endurance to remember a YEAR later,” he wrote on the fundraiser.

We love the power of the internet.

What happened at the Josh fight?

Pictures and videos of the event show that hundreds of Joshes came from all over to fight each other using pool noodles, and not only was the fighting totally chill, but many participants came dressed as popular heroes like Luke Skywalker and Spiderman.

After many pool noodle swings (and Joshes flung to the ground), the youngest Josh—aka Josh Vinson Jr.—was named the ultimate Josh and crowned the winner of the event with a Burger King crown and boxing belt.

The news quickly flooded the internet with some top-tier pics of the event, as well as Josh-themed memes that we expect to see in high school textbooks 30 years from now.

Shut up the winner of the Josh Fight is so precious pic.twitter.com/BIxWiEPH56

— Spearman (@Kingspearman19) April 25, 2021

On April 24th, 2021

History was made#JoshFight pic.twitter.com/lYTX0HzJVh

— Kira Dairu (@Kommii__) April 24, 2021

The fact that the #JoshFight winner, 4-year-old Josh Vinson Jr., was not only crowned the champion of the fight but also had received treatment at the children's hospital which the event raised around $8,000 for, is an incredible display of the positive power of the internet. pic.twitter.com/q6cqmS40WD

— Raskuly (@Raskuly) April 25, 2021

If little Josh’s win isn’t adorable enough for you, prepare to have your heart properly warmed: the fight managed to raise over $USD11,500 for the Lincoln Children’s Hospital and Medical Centre, where the youngest Josh had received treatment when he was just two-years-old.

On top of the money raised, attendees of the fight also donated a whipping 90 – 140kg of food to the Lincoln Food Bank.

On the fundraiser page, Swain said that he wanted to take advantage of the event by donating to the Children’s Hospital.

“It is not often that someone has the opportunity to have the attention and focus of a large number of people, and so I thought it would be a great idea to use this attention to donate to a worthy cause in the state in which the ‘battlei is taking place,” he wrote on the fundraiser page.

“The Children's Hospital & Medical Center is a foundation that seeks to support important programs, life-saving equipment and vital research to help Children’s Hospital & Medical Center meet kids’ unique health care needs.”

While little Josh did technically take out the crown, the event organiser, Swain, did come out on top against the other Josh Swains in an epic battle of rock, paper, scissors.

What's happened since the fight?

While the event is over for 2021, it’s not yet clear if a re-match will occur in 2022 or the years to come, but I’d tune in if it did.

The cherry on top of the event is that the location that the Joshes fought at has now officially been named the ‘Legendary Josh Battlefield’ on Google Maps. 

GOOGLE MAPS ACTUALLY CALLS IT THE LEGENDARY JOSH BATTLEFIELD THATS HILARIOUS #JoshFight pic.twitter.com/m6JRMbD4er

— p a i s ⁷ (got s worded) (@peterskeeners) April 25, 2021

In case you missed it, you can still find heaps of photos and videos of the battle all over the internet.

If you’re a Josh and you couldn’t make it this year, it’s time to start training.

Header Image: Twitter (@joshuaswainaz & @CFCxWag1)