Strawweight standout Vanessa Demopoulos returns to the Octagon this Saturday night seeking her sixth career win inside the Octagon and 12th overall.
A winner in four of her last five, ‘Lil Monster’ has won over a legion of fight fans with her bubbly personality and her signature celebration that sees her jump into the arms of her post-fight interviewer, whether that be Joe Rogan, Michael Bisping, or Daniel Cormier.
It’s been a long road for the 35-year-old Ohio native to get to this point in her life. Just two years ago, Demopoulos was working as an exotic dancer even as she made her Octagon debut against JJ Aldrich in the summer of 2021.
“I’ve always been a tough cookie,” Demopoulos told talkSPORT.com in May 2023. “I used to fight a lot when I was in school and I actually got kicked out of a lot of schools for fighting when I was young. 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.’
“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! “
Juggling the two careers was quite the challenge, but Demopoulos admits that her MMA skills came in handy from time to time at the gentleman’s club.
“I’ve had to choke a couple of guys unconscious at work, you know. 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. That was really cool. So, I doubled up as a bouncer at work. The bouncers said they didn’t have to worry about me because I was gonna handle my business.”
Vanessa Demopoulos knew that focusing on fighting full-time would be a huge financial risk
After finding success and financial freedom as a dancer for 13 years, ‘Lil Monster’ knew walking away to focus on fighting would be a huge risk.
So far, it’s worked out for her. Now that she’s got a few wins behind her and a solid fanbase, she’s focused on working her way up the strawweight rankings with hopes of one day challenging current champion Zhang Weili.
“This is my dream and I get to chase them now. I didn’t have the financial means at the time when I walked away and I was really scared, honestly,” Demopoulos said. “I believed in myself, and I trusted my skillset. I trusted myself and I knew that I was going to be able to make something of this. I didn’t want to split my effort anymore.
“One day I will be the champion and I’m working towards that. I know that in my heart, in my soul. I work for that every single day. This is all I think about.”
Demopoulos will face Jaqueline Amorim at UFC Vegas 97 this weekend. Amorim carries with her an impressive 8-1 record including four straight wins under the UFC banner. As a result, she is listed as a 3-to-1 favorite to come out on top.
