Tiffany van Soest

Early life

Tiffany van Soest was born in Torrance, California, and raised in Riverside, California. Her paternal grandfather was Dutch-Indonesian born in Semarang in the former Dutch East Indies who immigrated to the Netherlands in the early 1950s where he met his ethnically Dutch wife in the Hague before they moved to the United States. Van Soest is of maternal Austrian and Polish descent. The first sports she became involved in were association football at the age of five and later Shōrin-ryū karate at eight. She earned the rank of second degree black belt under Joey Pagliuso at the United States Karate Organization at seventeen but was unable to compete until she was eighteen because her parents wouldn't let her. When she did start competitive karate, she took multiple titles at state, national and world levels.

Van Soest stopped practicing martial arts for a short time to attend California State University San Marcos where she earned a bachelor's degree in kinesiology and played on the soccer team for two seasons. However, van Soest was soon drawn back to martial arts and found Muay Thai while living in San Diego, California.

Career

Van Soest began fighting in amateur Muay Thai in 2009 and had her first title fight on August 14, 2010, at the San Mateo Event Center in San Mateo, California, challenging IKF Women's Amateur World Muay Thai Bantamweight (-55.45 kg/122.2 lb) Champion Jenna Castillo for her belt. After what was called the "Fight of the Night", van Soest lost the challenge to Castillo by unanimous decision on scores of 50-44, 49-45 and 49-45. She soon captured the United States Muay Thai Association Women's Amateur California Featherweight Championship and then defeated Gabriela Lemus by technical knockout (TKO) in the second round of their contest in Pala, California on October 2, 2010, to claim the International Amateur Muay Thai Federation Women's United States Featherweight title. Her original opponent was to be Tandi Schaffer, but Schafer injured her hand in a previous bout and was forced to withdraw. Facing her first foreign opponent, van Soest fought to a draw with China's Cong Wang in Las Vegas, Nevada, on November 16, 2010.

She debuted as an amateur in mixed martial arts (MMA) on February 26, 2011, at the Road to WCK event in Pala where she TKO'd Kate McGray with a combination of a left high kick and standing-to-ground punches early in the second round. She had her first international bout in her second appearance in amateur MMA as she lost to Jin Tang via submission due to a triangle choke inside the first round in Nanning, China, on June 18, 2011. The fight is notable for being the first female MMA match to be held in mainland China.

After amassing a record of 10-1-1 as an amateur nak muay, Van Soest turned professional on October 22, 2011, and was initially set to rematch Cong Wang in her pro debut in Las Vegas. However, Wang was unable to compete and replaced by four-time world champion Lena Ovchynnikova. Van Soest won by TKO after Ovchynnikova retired in her corner with a broken hand at the end of round two. The pair were scheduled to rematch on July 21, 2012, in Croatia, but it never came to fruition. In her sophomore appearance as a pro, van Soest defeated Vivian Leung by unanimous decision at Lion Fight: Battle in the Desert 5 in Las Vegas on February 25, 2012. She then followed this up with another unanimous points victory over Heidi Otterbein at Lion Fight 6 on May 12, 2012.

In just her fourth outing as a pro, she was given the chance to fight for the vacant International Karate and Kickboxing Council Women's World Super Bantamweight Muay Thai Championship on August 18, 2012, in Pala. Facing Jemyma Betrian after her original foe Hilary Mack pulled out, van Soest and her Dutch-based Curaçaoan opponent put on a back-and-forth "Fight of the Night" display. Van Soest scored a knockdown with a spinning back fist in the second round, and Betrian was docked a point in the third for rabbit punching. Despite this, two judges scored the bout a draw and the other in the favour of van Soest, rendering the match a majority draw.

On October 13, 2012, van Soest took the WBC Muaythai Women's International Super Bantamweight (-55.338 kg/122 lb) title from the previously undefeated Jeri Sitzes at Lion Fight 7 in Las Vegas. After a slow first two rounds, she began taking the lead in the third, scoring with low kicks and punches to take the unanimous decision. Having already fought three times for the organization, she then signed a multi-fight contract with Lion Fight Promotions the following month.

In the co-main event of Lion Fight 8, the promotion's first event televised nationally, she faced Alexis Rufus on January 25, 2013. It was a closely contested affair up until round four when van Soest rocked Rufus with a high kick before dropping her for good with a right hand. Van Soest was again in the co-main event at Lion Fight 9 on March 15, 2013, as she took a wide unanimous decision over Natalie Yip, who was debuting as a professional.

Van Soest had no trouble defeating Lucy Payne in a bout for the inaugural Lion Fight Women's Featherweight (-56.7 kg/125 lb) Championship at Lion Fight 10 in Las Vegas on July 26, 2013. Despite giving up the height and reach advantage, she was able to get inside and hurt Payne, cornering the Englishwoman while landing a flurry of punches and elbows. Payne dropped to a knee, forcing the referee to step in and halt the bout and give Soest the TKO win in round one.

In a non-title affair at Lion Fight 12 in Las Vegas on November 1, 2013, van Soest completely outclassed Magali Foroni. The Frenchwoman offered little to no offense for two rounds until her corner threw in the towel midway through the third. Van Soest lost her Lion Fight title at her first attempted defence, losing to Caley Reece in the Lion Fight 13 headliner on February 7, 2014. Although it was a close fight, Reece's use of the clinch and sweeps saw her take a split decision and hand van Soest her first professional defeat.

Van Soest rematched Lucy Payne on March 23, 2014, at Lion Fight 15, which was held in Ledyard, Connecticut. It was the promotion's first card outside Las Vegas. Van Soest used chopping low kicks to slow Payne's movement en route to winning a unanimous decision. Van Soest defeated Sindy Huyer via TKO fifty-six seconds into round five at Lion Fight 16 in Las Vegas on July 4, 2014. Referee Junichiro Kamijo stopped the bout after van Soest landed a front kick to Huyer's face, which broke Huyer's nose, quickly followed with a left hook to the jaw.

Van Soest would win four more bouts in Lion Fight before moving to the Glory promotion in 2016. She won her first three fights via unanimous decision to win the Women's Super Bantamweight Grand Prix and therefore, become the Glory Women's Super Bantamweight Champion. Van Soest made her professional MMA debut with Invicta FC in 2016. She lost to Kal Holliday by submission (rear-naked choke).

Karate

Kickboxing / Muay Thai