[7]He trains at Auckland's City Kickboxing gym where he is the teammate of UFC fighters Israel Adesanya, Dan Hooker[8] and Kai Kara-France.

[9] Young started his professional MMA career in 2012 and amassed a record of 11–3 before being signed by the UFC.

[10] Young made his promotional debut as a short notice replacement against Alexander Volkanovski on 19 November 2017 at UFC Fight Night: Werdum vs.

[13] Young faced Rolando Dy on 23 June 2018 at UFC Fight Night: Cowboy vs.

[16] Young contemplated stepping away from fighting for the remainder of 2018 to tackle issues with depression after his bout with Dy.

Prior to the bout, he had to borrow $40 to get to the airport for his flight to Singapore for the fight, and was dealing mental health issues surrounding the break-up of his marriage.

[17] Young said that he spent most of the time with his family while seeking to reconnect with his Māori culture, which helped him to return to a healthy state of mind.

"[20]Young returned to fighting and faced Austin Arnett on 10 February 2019 at UFC 234.

[23] However Landwehr was pulled from the event due to testing positive for COVID-19 and was replaced by newcomer Ľudovít Klein.

The bout proceeded at a catchweight and Klein was fined a percentage of his purse, which went to Young.