After anger, sadness of debut loss, Invicta FC 23's Tiffany Van Soest ready to continue MMA transition

When Tiffany Van Soest steps back in the Invicta FC cage on Saturday, she’ll be in pursuit of her first win as a pro MMA fighter.

And it will come on the heels of her debut in the promotion this past fall – a submission loss to Kalyn (Holliday) Schwartz that she said left her angry, but more resolved to return and get back on the right track.

“I was so mad at myself – I was so sad,” Van Soest recently told Laura Sanko of UFC Fight Pass. “But there wasn’t for one second a moment I doubted myself. I just hought, ‘Hey, you’re the new kid on the block now.'”

Van Soest’s kickboxing and muay Thai background is beyond reproach. She’s a former GLORY champion and a former Lion Fight champ. But MMA is essentially brand new to her. The Californian said she gave MMA an early try, years ago, but then wound up making muay Thai her combat sports home until only a year ago deciding it was time to make the change.

“I’d been asked the question for years: ‘When are you going to transition?,'” she said. “I was like, ‘Why don’t you guys just enjoy my muay Thai? It’s pretty awesome.’ If I had a dollar for every time I heard it, I probably wouldn’t have to fight ever again. I felt like it was the right time to transition and test myself because I had proven that I was the best muay Thai fighter in the world multiple times, and I was ready for another challenge.

“When I had my couple amateur MMA fights, I was an amateur in muay Thai, as well, and I just kind of jumped on the MMA bandwagon. I kind of rushed into it.”

Van Soest (0-1) had some solid moments against Schwartz in September at Invicta FC 19. She’ll be hoping to build on those on Saturday when she takes on Christine Ferea (1-0) at Invicta FC 23, hoping for her first MMA win.

Invicta FC 23 takes place at Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City, Mo. The card streams on UFC Fight Pass.

“I just want to keep getting more experience in the cage,” Van Soest said. “(I’m) just getting used to the different element of being in the cage, and all the different scenarios that come in an MMA fight – there are so many moving pieces to it … The more fights I have in Invicta, the better.”

For more from Van Soest with Sanko, check out the video above.

For more on Invicta FC 23, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.