SAUGUS — If you have ever been to the Kowloon Restaurant, there is a good chance you’ve ordered their famous Saugus Wings. This year, the inaugural 2026 Saugus Wing Eating Championship crowned its first victor, James Webb.

The competition took place on Saturday, hosted at The Brook Casino, where one of Kowloon’s newest locations, 9 Dragons, is.

Webb has been competing in eating competitions for five years now, coming all the way from Australia to face off against some of the best. One of his competitors was the great Joey Chestnut, who ended up coming in second.

Webb finished with 249 wings in 10 minutes, and Chestnut finished with 241, making Webb the first Saugus Wing world record holder.

Webb said that one of the biggest competitions he’s ever been a part of is the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Championship.

“It’s crazy to be a part of that. But to be honest, and I said this yesterday, the Saugus event was pretty epic,” he said.

Webb commented on how crazy it is to get to compete against Chestnut, calling him “the GOAT,” and that it’s a “wild feeling” to beat him.

To be a part of these competitions, Webb fasts for 24 hours to prepare his body for the mass amount of food.

“You basically have to just get ready to eat nothing. … I think you just go into robot mode because you have to do this contest, and it doesn’t matter how good anything smells around you. You’re just like, ‘No, I can’t,’” he said.

After the competition ended, Webb stayed for about two and a half hours, still taking in his win and taking pictures and chatting with the crowd.

“It was an awesome event and such a cool feeling. Obviously, I’m Australian, and everyone was chanting ‘USA’ and for Joey. So, for people to want a piece of me after, it was awesome,” he said.

When asked what he thought about the wings, he said they were “freaking delicious.”

“I mean we were smashing them down, and I’m thinking man these are actually good. Sometimes in contests we don’t get delicious food. Sometimes in a contest, it feels like the food was cooked yesterday. But these were served hot and the sauce was actually epic,” he said. “At the seventh minute mark I was like, ‘Oh, this is actually pretty good,’ and then I just though wait shut up this is a contest keep eating.”

Webb also competed in this years Nathan’s Famous, coming in third place with 47.5 hot dogs.

Webb hopes to be back again next year. To check out his content, which involves eating some massive dishes for different restaurant challenges, he can be found at jwebby_can.eat on all platforms.