Vanessa Demopoulos: a former exotic dancer and writer, conquering the Octagon

33-year-old Vanessa Demopoulos had a very unusual path to the world's strongest league. The pretty girl has switched from pole dancing to fierce battles in the octagon. You will learn more about her in this material.

Vanessa was born on September 22, 1988, in Cleveland, Ohio.

Her father was a DJ and manager, while her mother was a dancer. That's why Vanessa was acquainted with the exotic dancing industry from an early age.

Demopoulos's parents are from Greece. They brought up little Vanessa. Greek was the first language she learned. Because of that, Vanessa couldn't talk to her mother after she returned to the USA, she just didn't understand the language.

Vanessa's teenage years were very tough. She was kicked out of school for fighting, started taking drugs, and was homeless for some time. She had these problems for some time, but dancing became her salvation.

At the age of 18, Vanessa took up pole dancing, and by the age of 20, this passion became her main source of income and she managed to leave her problems behind.

But Vanessa was engaged not only in dancing. She always liked martial arts. She decided to learn how to defend herself and took up kickboxing and then jiu-jitsu. She liked it so much she started to combine stripping and martial arts competitions. And then Vanessa took up MMA. At first, she performed among the amateurs where she had six wins and lost only once to Katlyn Chookagian. On December 15, 2017, Demopoulos debuted on a professional level by defeating Emme Weber via armbar.

In 2017, Vanessa issued her book titled "Stripper Bible." On July 17, 2020, Vanessa choked Sam Hughes at the LFA 85 and became the organization's strawweight champion. And a year later, Demopoulos made it to the UFC with a record of 6-3.

Vanessa lost her first UFC battle. At the UFC on ESPN 30, Demopoulos lost to JJ Aldrich via unanimous decision. But she succeeded in the next bout. By applying an armbar, she beat Silvana Gómez Juárez in the first round. After her triumph, Vanessa jumped on famous UFC host Joe Rogan, making the MMA community talk about herself.

After the victory, Vanessa claimed she had quit stripping and had focused on her UFC performance.

I grew up in the industry, and walking away from it was one of the scariest things I have ever done. It’s just so scary, man, because that was the way I was making money all of these years to fight full-time. I was working at night, training all day, but I was only able to work two nights a week. I was like, ‘F*ck! Do I want to make a few dollars? Or do I want to recover and sleep, and make sure I’m taking care of my body and mental space so I can perform better in the cage? I literally wrote this thing on my whiteboard, ‘Bust your ass for thousands vs. shaking it for dollars.' I looked at that every single morning.

Vanessa Demopoulos

Vanessa Demopoulos is a shining example of how you can change your life. After a tough journey, she ended up in the strongest organization in the world.