UFC women’s strawweight contender Vanessa Demopoulos has revealed that she quit her job as a stripper to focus on MMA when she got the call she would be on the UFC 270 PPV card. What’s more surprising is that ‘Lil Monster’ stopped working the day job around six weeks before the event.
Fighting as one of the preliminary cards, Demopoulos was paired to face off with Silvana Gomez Juarez. After only 2 minutes into the starting round Demopoulos was badly rocked. But she managed to recover and put Juarez in an armbar and made her tap. Vanessa Demopoulos was announced as a winner via a first-round submission that night.
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Vanessa Demopoulos worked as an exotic pole dancer for 13 years. After she joined her most recent training camp, Ronin Training Center, she decided to focus on mixed martial arts training.
During a talk with Combat Sports, she said that is open about her old job now. She also revealed that she worked as a pole dancer for 13 years.
“And I didn’t actually say it on the mic, but I’d like to say it right now – I walked away from being a stripper to continue this camp. I quit dancing about six to eight weeks ago just so I could focus full-time on MMA, take this extremely seriously in the gym every single day.” Demopoulos said.
Demopoulos, who focuses on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, compared pole dancing with BJJ and explained how her old job helps her improve her Jiu Jitsu skill.
“Pole dancing takes a lot of agility, a lot of body awareness, a lot of dexterity and flexibility, and you have to be quick with your reactions. It’s similar to what jiu-jitsu feels like, but in jiu-jitsu, you have options of tapping if you have to, or you’re safe if you are on the ground.” Vanessa Demopoulos added.
Vanessa Demopoulos is fairly new in the UFC. She fought in Dana White’s Contender Series in August 2020 and lost on his debut fight against Cory Mckenna via unanimous decision. Previously, she spent most of her professional MMA fight within Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA). So far, Demonopoulos has a total score consisting of 7 wins and 4 losses.
Vanessa Demopoulos, who defeated Silvana Gomez Juarez by first-round sub, said a lot of her expertise in jiu-jitsu comes from her time as a pole dancer. #UFC270
— Greg Rosenstein (@grosenstein) January 23, 2022
And – she even hopped into Joe Rogan’s arms post fight victory.
THAT’S how you make the most of your post fight interview ?
[ @Monster_Demo | #UFC270 ] pic.twitter.com/L94yFHLE0F
— UFC (@ufc) January 23, 2022
And in case you think Fighter’s pay is not an issue – UFC 270 is estimated to have cost the promotion a total $1.8 Million in fighter’s pay. This threshold is reached AFTER only 27k PPV buys. At the very least UFC 270 is estimated to have sold 500,000 PPVs.
Demopoulos was compensated with a total of $20,000 – $14,000 for fighting and $5,000 in sponsorship money.