By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Summer Tapasa-Sataraka didn’t know it at the time. But when the former Best Buy security worker stopped a would-be thief from taking an item from the store without paying and got into a skirmish with the man in the retail store in Hawaii last week, her life changed forever.
The video of Tapasa-Sataraka’s scrap with the shoplifter caught UFC President Dana White’s attention. So much so that White invited the 25-year-old woman to Las Vegas as his guest to see the UFC 246 fight show at T-Mobile Arena Saturday. Here’s the two in a photo from Friday.
“It was insane. My jaw dropped,” Tapasa-Sataraka told LVSportsBiz.com after the UFC 246 weigh-in ceremony at Park Theater near T-Mobile Arena.
And here’s the business kicker — White offered Tapasa-Sataraka a job working for him.
Tapasa-Sataraka was technically fired by Best Buy for getting involved in the physical skirmish with the shoplifter, though she had already given her notice before that and was working her final days.
Here’s a bizarre twist to the Best Buy incident for Tapasa-Sataraka. She said her boyfriend, Elisaia Salanoa, 28, also worked security at the same Best Buy store, but he was also fired for getting in a scrap with a customer when the customer pulled a knife on him on Black Friday after Thanksgiving.
LVSportsBiz.com chatted with Tapasa-Sataraka for this interview.
She mentioned that she hasn’t discussed the job situation with White, who told LVSportsBiz.com last week, “What a bad ass she is.”
Tapasa-Sataraka was on stage at the UFC 246 weigh-in this afternoon and had some fun interplay with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, who is fighting Conor McGregor in a headline match Saturday night. At the weigh-in on Friday, Cerrone playfully sparred with Tapasa-Sataraka on stage after he found out about her takedown of the would-be thief at the Best Buy store last week.
Here’s Tapasa-Sataraka with a close view of the McGregor-Cerrone face-to-face pose after each weighed in at 170 pounds.
Tapasa-Sataraka said she doesn’t know what job awaits her with White.
But she did note that she can work security for him.
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