UFC strawweight contender Vanessa Demopoulos felt relief after quitting her exotic dancing job.
Vanessa Demopoulos entered the UFC through Dana White’s Contender Series in August 2020 and lost against Cory Mckenna via unanimous decision. She had her first UFC bout in August of last year against JJ Aldrich. ‘Lil Monster’ fought for three rounds and unfortunately she lost via unanimous decision.
At the time, Demopoulos was still actively working as an exotic dancer in a club. She has been working as an exotic dancer for 13 years. And Demopoulos understood that she needed to choose between MMA and dancing at some point.
She had her second UFC bout last January against Silvana Gomez Juarez. Prior to that fight, Demopoulos decided to quit her pole dancing job and joined Ronin Training Center to focus on MMA. Her hard work paid off as she managed to submit Juarez with an arm bar after only 2 minutes into the starting round.
During her recent interview with MMA News, the 33-year-old recalled her life-changing decision. She expressed relief after quitting her old job.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever been able to be completely immersed in the thing I love doing so very much. It’s been completely life-changing for me, this camp especially being at Fight Ready and just being able to give my all to the thing that I love.” Demopoulos said.
She explained that working as a pole dancer and a professional athlete at the same time made her lose focus.
“Every time I’ve ever fought, I’ve only been like half in, half out. That’s not because of anything for me mentally, but because I had to split my time. I had to split my attention between the other job I had. It’s been a huge difference for me.” Demopoulos said.
Vanessa Demopoulos will perform in the octagon this weekend at UFC Vegas 57. She will take on former Invicta FC atomweight champion Jinh Yu Frey. The pair will feature as one of the preliminary cards in tomorrow’s event.