Strawweight standout Vanessa Demopoulos returns to the Octagon this Saturday evening searching for her sixth profession win contained in the Octagon and twelfth general.
A winner in 4 of her final 5, ‘Lil Monster’ has received over a legion of combat followers together with her bubbly character and her signature celebration that sees her bounce into the arms of her post-fight interviewer, whether or not that be Joe Rogan, Michael Bisping, or Daniel Cormier.
It’s been a protracted street for the 35-year-old Ohio native to get so far in her life. Simply two years in the past, Demopoulos was working as an unique dancer at the same time as she made her Octagon debut in opposition to JJ Aldrich in the summertime of 2021.
“I’ve all the time been a troublesome cookie,” Demopoulos informed talkSPORT.com in Could 2023. “I used to combat loads after I was in class and I really acquired kicked out of numerous colleges for combating after I was younger. Once I turned 18, I began dancing as a stripper, as a pole dancer, after which somebody noticed me within the membership and mentioned, ‘When you put that very same ability that you just put in the direction of pole dancing into combating, you may do one thing with it.’
“So, I used to be like, ‘Cool. Train me how you can combat.’ That was after I was 21 years previous, and I by no means appeared again. I cherished it! “
Juggling the 2 careers was fairly the problem, however Demopoulos admits that her MMA expertise got here in hand every so often on the gentleman’s membership.
“I’ve needed to choke a few guys unconscious at work, you already know. They’d attempt to run off on me with out paying me or one thing and didn’t know they had been messing with the improper chick. They’d find yourself waking up and politely giving me my cash. That was actually cool. So, I doubled up as a bouncer at work. The bouncers mentioned they didn’t have to fret about me as a result of I used to be gonna deal with my enterprise.”
Vanessa Demopoulos knew that specializing in combating full-time can be an enormous monetary danger
After discovering success and monetary freedom as a dancer for 13 years, ‘Lil Monster’ knew strolling away to give attention to combating can be an enormous danger.
Up to now, it’s panned out for her. Now that she’s acquired a number of wins behind her and a stable fanbase, she’s targeted on working her method up the strawweight rankings with hopes of someday difficult present champion Zhang Weili.
“That is my dream and I get to chase them now. I didn’t have the monetary means on the time after I walked away and I used to be actually scared, truthfully,” Demopoulos mentioned. “I believed in myself, and I trusted my skillset. I trusted myself and I knew that I used to be going to have the ability to make one thing of this. I didn’t need to break up my effort anymore.
“At some point I would be the champion and I’m working in the direction of that. I do know that in my coronary heart, in my soul. I work for that each single day. That is all I take into consideration.”
Demopoulos will face Jaqueline Amorim at UFC Vegas 97 this weekend. Amorim carries together with her a powerful 8-1 file together with four-strains wins underneath the UFC banner. Consequently, she is listed as a 3-to-1 favourite to come back out on prime.
