Former Stripper Turned UFC Fighter Says Background On The Pole Has Helped Her In The Octagon
UFC fighter Vanessa Demopoulos' path to the octagon is an interesting one to say the least. She didn't grow up putting in hours of mixed martial arts training. Fighting wasn't even the 35-year-old's first career.
She jumped on the stripper pole at the age of 18 and didn't start training until she was 21. She was still stripping when she started her mixed martial arts career, including while training for her first fight in the UFC.
Vanessa Demopoulos celebrates her victory over Silvana Juarez in their Women Strawweight fight climbing at UFC 270 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Louis Grasse/PxImages/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Following that first UFC fight, a loss, in August of 2021, Demopoulos decided it was time to start focusing on fighting full-time. Six weeks before her second fight at UFC 270, she hung up her stilettos after more than a decade on the pole.
She won that fight, the first of what turned out to be a three fight win streak. According to Demopoulos, her smooth transition from stripper to fighter is due to all of the years she put in on the stripper pole.
"When I turned 18, I started dancing as a stripper, as a pole dancer, and then someone saw me in the club and said, 'If you put that same skill that you put towards pole dancing into fighting, you might do something with it," she said.
"So, I was like, 'Cool. Teach me how to fight.' That was when I was 21 years old, and I never looked back. I loved it!"
Vanessa Demopoulos' Stripper To UFC Fighter Story Is One Of Inspiration
Demopoulos says the flexibility needed in her past career as a stripper made the transition to Jiu-Jitsu an easy one. She even put her MMA skills to good use while still hitting the pole.
"I’ve had to choke a couple of guys unconscious at work, you know," she claimed. "They would try to run off on me without paying me or something and didn't know they were messing with the wrong chick. They'd end up waking up and politely giving me my money."
It's hard to argue with her that she hasn't made a successful move from stripper to fighter. She's fighting in the UFC, not some backyard fight club.
And she's not playing the role of tomato can for contenders. She rattled off three straight wins in the octagon before her loss in May to Karolina Kowalkiewicz by unanimous decision.
That loss isn't keeping her from her ultimate goal of being a champion. She's back in action on Saturday night at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas and she's looking to get back in the win column.
"I was built in the trenches," she said. "I was built before anybody saw me.I was the person in the gym doing the work when no one was watching. I don't care about the lights and the media and all the interviews. I mean, they're amazing and I love them so much. I love the attention, but that's not what I'm about."
It's hard not to respect that kind of attitude. A former stripper who ends up a champion is the kind of success story we can all root for.