Tai Emery had a memorable knockout, followed by a viral post-fight celebration at the most recent BKFC Thailand event — a celebration that not all fighters took kindly to.
Emery picked up a first-round knockout at BKFC Thailand 3 in September against Rung-Arun Khunchai and then proceeded to flash the crowd in attendance. In an interview with MMA Fighting, now BKFC strawweight champion, and one-time flyweight title challenger Britain Hart reacted to Emery’s celebration and felt like it “could be interpreted as a slap in the face to real, hard-working fighters,” amongst other thoughts.
Ahead of Emery’s upcoming bout against Po Denman at BKFC Thailand 4 this Saturday, Emery responded to Hart’s thoughts.
“Just shut the f*** up,” Emery told MMA Fighting. “Look away [if you don’t like it]. I’m a hard worker. I am one of the hardest workers there is. I had 10 years as a bloody electrician. Look up the work. B****, have you even dug a trench before? Dig some trenches, go f****** crawl through some ceilings, run a man’s world, then become a pro f****** football player that becomes the best in the world at tackling, and then comes to your sport and f****** has a good go?
“Anyone that wants to say that I’m not hard working, please. My resume speaks for itself, and my hard work speaks it for itself. I shouldn’t even have to say this.”
Emery understands that heading into her second BKFC bout, she has a long way to go in order to fight the caliber of fighter as a Hart, or current flyweight champ Christine Ferea, and she’s fine with that in order to build experience as a bare-knuckle competitor.
But for Hart, or anybody else that is criticizing the 35-year-old’s work ethic to get to this place, Emery understands that it’s going to be part of the game as long as she competes, but she in no way feels like she’s disrespecting women.
“One thing I’ve learned in this sport is you can win a championship and within 10 seconds, somebody is going to be jumping on that train — [sometimes] to just give their opinion like it [has] worth, and guess what? It does have worth because it’s an opinion and everyone is allowed to have one,” Emery said.
“Someone’s going to feel disrespected, someone is going to feel respected by it. Some will be liberated by it, other people will feel like, ‘Oh, what has she done to women?’ I’ve dedicated my entire life as a woman to not fit a stereotype and just be myself. I was literally. the first female electrical contractor, I’m the first female thermographer, I’ve dominated a male’s world. How can anybody say I would do something to just disrespect women, or disrespect other hard-working fighters when I’ve literally lived on concrete, eaten a cup of rice and one egg a day in a Muay Thai gym in f****** Thailand in the jungle. Like, disrespect what Britain Hart? What the hell?”
