To understand Tai Emery ’s outlook on life, you should first know the journey she’s taken to this point in her career. She used to work as an electrician, believe it or not, and then a thermographer before she turned to modeling and then fighting. Oh, and there was also that stint she had as a lingerie football player. Perhaps unsurprisingly, things haven’t always broken her way. “The years of sacrifice and the years of going without, yeah, it pays off,” Emery told MMA Junkie.