Vanessa Demopoulos made the right decision to leave the world of exotic dancing to pursue a more violent career.
Demopoulos had a show-stopping win at UFC 270 and it paid off in a huge way. She won her first fight and earned a $50,000 performance of the night bonus. Not only that, she also earned $24,000 for the fight alone.
“I don’t think it’s a secret, I was an exotic entertainer for 13 years,” Demopoulos said in a post-fight press conference after beating Silvana Gomez Juarez with a first-round armbar.
The topic only surfaced after the 33-year-old jumped into a split at her weigh-in and after her win.
“Yeah, that’s my stripper guard there,” she said.
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“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.”
Demopulos actually credited her “expertise as a pole dancer” for “a lot” of her jiu-jitsu skills.
Back in 2018, the former LFA Strawweight Champion discussed the physical benefits of pole dancing:
“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,” she told Combat Press.
“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. With pole dancing, it’s very death-defying in the sense that you’re literally hanging on with, like, a limb, and one wrong move, you’re done. Like, I’m falling from two stories and that’s it. You only fall once.”
