How a lock-in with Conor McGregor helped Hudson Young take his game to new heights

Kingscliff: Hudson Young will never forget the night he spent in an Irish pub with UFC star Conor McGregor.

Young had just finished playing for Australia in last year’s Ashes series in England, and decided to pop over for a look around Ireland.

On this particular evening, last drinks had been called at The Black Forge, McGregor’s establishment in Dublin, so Young ordered an Uber – only to spot McGregor himself stroll through the front door.

Young told McGregor he was a huge fan, had just finished playing rugby league for the Kangaroos and personally knew his martial arts coach, John Kavanagh.

McGregor then invited Young to stay back for a few drinks, and the pair consumed an unhealthy amount of Forged Irish Stout, before exchanging phone numbers. McGregor even took a video of the pair in the empty pub, which Young uploaded to Instagram.

The 37-year-old McGregor, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2018 and later ordered to pay nearly $450,000 in damages, remains one of the biggest stars in UFC. Millions of fans are set to tune into his welterweight fight with Max Holloway on Sunday week.

Arguably an even fonder memory from that post-Ashes trip for Young was the chance to complete an 80-minute jiu-jitsu session with Kavanagh.

Young first met Kavanagh through Michael Maguire when he was an assistant coach at the Raiders. They crossed paths again during the Ashes tour, when Young presented Kavanagh with an Australian jersey. Kavanagh then asked Young if he had any interest in taking part in a wrestling session.

Young will never forget the experience, and claims he was left flat on his back for more than an hour, but some of the lessons have now been incorporated into his own defensive game each week in the NRL. Some of the techniques will also be subtly applied to the Queenslanders next Wednesday, including on Sam Walker – the Maroons playmaker Young hopes to pressure again. Provided he can find him.

“He hides on the wing until tackle four, so it’s hard to get him sometimes,” Young said earlier this week about Walker.

There has been a subtle shift away from the wrestle on the ground in rugby league because of the risk of giving away a set restart. Players trying to slow the ruck by pinning players down are often penalised by referees.

One way around it is to focus on getting a good first grip on the attacking player and trying to slow the process of dragging them to the ground – something at which Young excels.

“It was cool to go into an environment like that and learn the different techniques with the wrestle,” Young said of his session with Kavanagh.

“The one part of my game I identified I wanted to get better at last year was the wrestle. I’d like to think I’ve got better this year.

“You need to stay on top of these things. I also have a great wrestle coach in Canberra, Josh Miller, we go through a lot of stuff.”

Miller, who played with the Raiders, and is a black belt in jiu-jitsu, certainly noticed Young improve his defence after the one-off interaction with Kavanagh.

“Hudson’s physicality in the game at the moment is unreal – he’s gone to a new level with his physicality,” Miller said.

“It’s all about grips and handles, and knowing which spots [of the body] to put weight on.

“It’s getting very hard with the wrestle, but it’s about where you position yourself when bringing a player to the ground – it’s to do with your position when you land on them on the ground.

“If an attacking player lands on both elbows, they can get up quicker. But if you can take an elbow out on the way to the ground, they become unstable and unable to fight because of the uneven weight distribution.

“Hudson is always looking for information, and if there’s any way he can get better, he’ll be asking you how he can do that. It’s such a good quality in a player to have.”

As for that wild night with McGregor, Young smiled and said: “It was a case of ‘right place, right time’. For him to come into the pub was surreal.

“He’s been an idol of mine for many years. I still watch his YouTube videos. Like many kids across Australia and the world, to have the chance to share a few beers and have a chat and a laugh with him, it was great. He put a few [beers] away.

“I’ve got his number on WhatsApp. It’s pretty mad. We should get him to watch an Origin game and put him in a Blues jersey. But he’s about to fight [on Sunday week].”