How Conor McGregor’s coach helped make Hudson Young a better player
– Kingscliff: Hudson Young will never forget the night he spent with UFC star Conor McGregor in an Irish pub.
Young had just finished playing for Australia in last year’s Ashes series in England and decided to drop by to have a look at Ireland.
On this particular evening, last drinks had been consumed at McGregor’s Dublin business The Black Forge, so Young ordered an Uber – only to find McGregor walking through the front door.
Young said he was a big fan of McGregor, had just finished playing rugby league for the Kangaroos and knew martial arts coach John Kavanagh personally.
McGregor then invited Young to stay behind for a few drinks, and the pair consumed an unhealthy amount of Forged Irish Stout before sharing phone numbers. McGregor even took a video of the couple in the empty bar, which Young uploaded to Instagram.
McGregor, 37, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2018 and later ordered to pay approximately $450,000 in damages, remains one of the UFC’s biggest stars. Millions of fans are preparing to watch his heavyweight fight against Max Holloway on Sunday.
Arguably an even fonder memory of the 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. Their paths crossed again during the Ashes tour when Young presented Kavanagh with an Australia jersey. Kavanagh then asked Young if he was interested in participating 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 are now incorporated into his defensive play every week in the NRL. Some of the techniques, including Maroons playmaker Young, Sam Walker, will be masterfully applied to the Queenslanders next Wednesday. Provided he finds her, of course.
“He hides on the wing until the fourth tackle, so sometimes it’s hard to get itYoung said of Walker earlier this week.
In rugby league, there has been a slight move away from on-field wrestling due to the risk of restarting the set. Players who try to slow down the game by pinning players to the ground are often penalized by the referees.
One way around this is to focus on getting a good grip on the attacking player first and trying to slow down the process of dragging him to the ground, which is something Young is very good at.
“It was great to get into an environment like that and learn the different techniques of wrestling,” Young said of his session with Kavanagh.
“One part of my game that I identified last year that I wanted to get better at was wrestling. I’d like to think I’m better this year.”
“You’ve got to stay on top of those things. I also have a great wrestling coach in Canberra, Josh Miller, we go through a lot.”
Miller, who plays for the Raiders and has a black belt in jiu-jitsu, certainly noticed Young’s improved defense after the one-time interaction with Kavanagh.
“Hudson’s physicality in the game right now is unreal; he’s gone to a new level with his physicality,” Miller said.
“It’s all about handles and handles and which points [of the body] give weight.
“It gets very difficult in wrestling, but it’s about where you position yourself when you’re taking a guy down; it’s about your position when you land on him.
“If an aggressive player lands on both elbows, he can get up quicker. However, if you dislocate your elbow as he lands, he becomes unstable due to unbalanced weight distribution and cannot fight.
“Hudson is always looking for information, and if there’s a way to improve himself, he’ll ask you how he can do it. That’s a very good quality to have in a player.”
As for that wild night with McGregor, Young smiled and said: “It was a ‘right place, right time’ situation. It was surreal for him to show up at the bar.”
“He’s been my idol for years. I still watch his YouTube videos. Like so many kids around Australia and around the world, it was great to have the chance to share a few beers with him, chat and laugh. He poured a few beers too.” [beers] far.
“I found his number on WhatsApp. It’s pretty crazy. We’ve got to get him to watch an Origin game and get him to wear a Blues jersey. But he’s about to fight.” [on Sunday week].”
