Kaitlin Young has made all the necessary changes to thrive in her Invicta FC 9 bout against Raquel Pa’aluhi. All she has to do now is execute.

On the surface, Young doesn’t appear to be anything special. Her record shows more losses than wins and she hasn’t emerged victorious from a professional contest in nearly three years.

What the numbers alone don’t show, though, is Young has faced the biggest and best names the sport has to offer dating back to her debut bout in October 2007.

Young has shared the ring or cage with the likes of Miesha Tate, Gina Carano, Julie Kedzie, Liz Carmouche, Leslie Smith, Lauren Murphy and more. With the exception of Carano, everyone listed has recently fought under the UFC banner.

The majority of those contests didn’t go Young’s way, and she’s currently in the midst of a four-fight winless streak. To break out of her slump, Young decided a massive change was needed, and that’s why she moved to California to train at Glendale Fight Club alongside UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.

“I just turned 29 and I’m not near retirement, but the window is closing,” Young told MMAjunkie. “If this is something I’m really going to pursue and I don’t want to just retire a mid-level fighter, it was time to really make a change and go for it. I’m not going to have the opportunity forever, so I had to take it and run with it. To see the coaching and training out here, it was very apparent to me that if I didn’t change things up I wouldn’t be able to compete on that level.”

For the past several years Young called the Minnesota Martial Arts Academy home. While the gym has groomed or produced solid talent such as Sean Sherk, Pat Barry and Nick Thompson, Young felt she needed to surround herself with likeminded individuals.

There are very few teams that house a strong roster of female fighters, but Glendale Fight Club, headed by Rousey and her “Four Horsewomen” crew of Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir, was the perfect fit for Young.

“My training partners were great back home, but to train exclusively with people within 10 pounds of you is awesome,” Young said. “You can’t do the same thing and expect different results. I had to change it up for myself and come out here. The coaching here is incredible. They’ve put in a lot of time with me and it’s great. It’s like the dream team.”

While Young is content with her current position in Invicta FC, she has aspirations of eventually joining some of her new teammates in the UFC. It’s a dream Young knows is achievable, but not until she improves her fight record.

Despite the fact she has fought and beaten some of the best, Young knows the UFC is unlikely to take on a new talent with a sub-.500 record. Because of that, she believes it’s time to turn things around and go on a run. And with the support of her new team, Young said she views her Invicta FC 9 contest as a fresh start.

“I’ve fought almost everybody and pretty much all of them have made it into the UFC,” Young said. “Regardless of what level of competition you’re fighting, they’re not going to bring you in with a losing record. Mark Hunt is the exception. That’s motivation for me. It used to not be a possibility to be in the UFC, but now so many of my peers are doing it. I feel like it would be stupid not to try and achieve that goal.”

Invicta FC 9 goes down Saturday at the RiverCenter in Davenport, Iowa. The event, including Young (7-8-1) vs. Pa’aluhi (3-4), streams on UFC Fight Pass.

Young was originally scheduled to meet Cindy Dandois at the event, but her opponent changed just eight days prior to fight night. She’ll now take on Pa’aluhi, another fighter who sports a losing professional record.

A change in opponents can frazzle some athletes, but Young is not concerned with the switch. In fact, she said Pa’aluhi is a matchup she’s been interested in for some time, and she’s extremely confident her preparation will lead to her first victory since January 2012.

“She’s someone I did actually want to fight,” Yougn said. “If it was going to switch, I’m happy it went to her. I think Raquel is super tough, super scrappy. I don’t think she’s very slick on the ground, but she’s very tough. The fact she’s willing to step up and fight me shows a lot.”

For more on Invicta FC 9, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.