Jinh Yu Frey Ready to Test Her Championship Worthiness at Invicta FC 16

Following a loss to Jodie Esquibel in her Invicta FC debut in September of 2014, atomweight up-and-comer Jinh Yu Frey has won back-to-back fights for the company and is on the verge of possibly her biggest year yet.

Frey credits her recent success to a change in her training, including bringing in a trainer from a well-known recently dissolved team.

“I actually switched camps and have been working with Steven Wright, who was the striking coach at Team Takedown, and some new training partners, and it’s really helped me take my game to the next level,” Frey told MMAWeekly.com.

The switch was brought upon by Frey’s desire to take her career more seriously and top-tier training to match her move up in level.

“I had some training partners I’d been training with regularly, but life happens and people’s ambitions and goals change, and they want to go different paths in their fighting careers,” said Frey. “I wanted to find people serious about their careers and were interested in helping everybody get better.”

While her game hasn’t been completely overhauled, Frey is pleased with how her new coaching has complemented her style and allowed her to progress naturally.

“It’s kind of hard to tell because I see my training every day, but I feel it’s been like little refinements and not huge changes in the way I fight,” said Frey. “Steven understands how I fight and isn’t going to try to recreate somebody, but trains to my strengths and tries to improve me.”

Frey (4-1) will have her first fight of the year at Friday’s Invicta FC 16 in Las Vegas, as she takes on former titleholder Herica Tiburcio (9-3) in a main card 105-pound bout.

RELATED > Amber Brown Ready to Bully Her Way to Invicta FC Belt

“She’s a very tough, scrappy and aggressive fighter,” said Frey of Tiburcio. “I’m just going to have to not give an inch. I have to keep moving forward and have to be the more aggressive fighter. I have to stay on top of things and not let my guard down.

“I’m excited to test my skills against (Tiburcio). Considering that she was just the champion, we will see whether or not I’m ready to challenge for the title.”

While she has championship aspirations for 2016, Frey is keen to not look past Tiburcio and get too caught up in what may come afterwards.

“The most important thing is to look at the task at hand and not get too far ahead of myself,” said Frey. “I’m not going to look past Friday night because anything can happen.”