Meet Tai Emery: Why a viral ‘flash’ knockout at BKFC meant more than met the eyes

Life can change in a flash, as Tai Emery learned after her first BKFC win.

It’s a challenge even now to wrap her head around the spike in attention and her tens of thousands of new followers. Before the fight, she may have predicted it – but in a dishonest “shoot for the stars” sort of way. And here she is days later, in a position where her confident fib wouldn’t have even lived up to how reality played out.

“There’s the formula for something like that to happen and make a superstar out of it,” Emery recently told MMA Junkie. “But yeah, holy moly. Life has changed.”

Emery’s “formula” consisted of a two-ingredient recipe, albeit as unconventional as it was. A brutal TKO was followed by an exposed breast celebration that left commentators Sean Wheelock and Chris Lytle in audible disbelief.

In her promotional debut at BKFC Thailand 3, Emery quickly walloped her opponent Rung-Arun Khunchai with a slick combination. That could’ve been a highlight within itself, but then she went the extra mile and broke the internet instead. Emery hopped on the rope, pulled up her top, and flashed the crowd.

Instantly, the moment went viral. In came the influx of Instagram and OnlyFans followers. The comments flowed – a sea of positivity that drowned out droplets of negativity.

“Life has definitely taken a turn just by me being my crazy little self,” Emery recently told MMA Junkie. “Honestly, it’s been super positive. Everybody feels super liberated by such an act. Hashtags like ‘rebel’ and ‘free,’ and I think that’s really cool. Just by doing something that’s really at the end of the day so silly, if it’s making people feel that positive vibe, then yeah, roll with it.”

The moment was impulsive, but reflective of her personality, according to Emery, who likes to often use inappropriate humor to both lighten the mood and get a kick out of others’ uncomfortableness.

“It was super impulsive, but I’m also someone where I like to say stuff that’s either a little vulgar or crass, as you heard just before,” Emery said. “Just to get a little rile out of people. I know that’s so sick but I really enjoy like, just saying uncomfortable stuff just to make people either laugh or cringe. I threw it out there just having a joke. They’re like, ‘Yeah, have a good time out there.’ I’m like, ‘Well, what are you going to do if I just flash my titties? What’s going to happen? Huh? Huh?”

What may have been seen simply as an empty, crude act to some, meant more than that to others – herself included – Emery explained. At that moment, she was in charge.

“For me, it’s like, true girl power, like, ‘What the f*ck are yous going to do about it?’ In that moment, I owned everything,” Emery said. “I owned time itself in my own world. I think that was the most perfect thing to be like, ‘You can’t do anything about it, you know?’ That’s my moment. Nothing could change.”

In retrospect, things couldn’t have gone much better. She loved it, as did the majority of fans. The promotion had a field day promoting it on social media – and BKFC head honcho David Feldman gave the stamp of approval.

“If the bosses are happy, guess what people?” Emery said. “Everyone’s happy.”

The minority of critics don’t need to approve, but Emery wants everyone to understand the celebration wouldn’t have been without what came over the years beforehand.

“What shines of (the negativity) is every single paper I’ve read or every single link that’s been sent to me it’s said, ‘textbook uppercut followed by a hook,’ just talking about my technique,” Emery said. “I don’t think it would’ve gone as viral if beforehand I wasn’t proving something.”

So what exactly was Emery proving?

To many fans, she might be the woman who had a raunchy celebration. Peel back the curtain, however, and her journey was long, windy, and grindy toward combat sports notoriety – and just general comfortability.

“I’m definitely going to have changed my life. I know that sort of ripple effect,” Emery said. “There’s a lot of people (who helped). I lived in gyms. I lived in a car. I’ve lived on a concrete floor on the jungle of Thailand just to do this sport. All those nights. Every single night. I’ve missed meals just to get to jiu-jitsu. Bro, this is the best feeling.”

If there’s a renaissance man, Emery is the renaissance woman.

Her list of life endeavors is a grab bag, to say the least. Without being fact-checked, she is history’s only electrician-turned-thermographer-turned-model-turned-fighter, who also played lingerie football.

She lived in Australia and the United States before Thailand, where she was stuck during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sacrifices were plentiful on the road to her dream.

At 35, Emery has four fights left on her BKFC contract and embodies her longtime goals. She doesn’t see the story ending any time soon. And the celebrations? Yeah, those aren’t going away. So, buckle up, haters.

“It’s time to do whatever I want. I earned it,” Emery said. “So, if I want to flash my tits again, people, I’m going to do whatever I want. … One hundred percent I’m probably going to do something even stupider. That’s the whole point of this. Like I said, in that moment I get to KO someone like, knock them out, I get to own that point of time for myself.

“I think each time I’m going to be more and more enabled just to be like, ‘There’s nothing anybody can do with it. Whether you’re feeling good or bad, you’re going to feel something from this.”

Story originally appeared on MMA Junkie