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Vanessa Demopoulos had a show-stopping win at UFC 270 and her press conference wasn’t bad, either.
“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 came up when a reporter asked Demopoulos, 33, if she has a gymnastics background after she jumped into a split at her weigh-in and after her win.
“Yeah, that’s my stripper guard there,” she said, laughing about the splits.
“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.
The former LFA Strawweight Champion discussed the physical benefits of pole dancing in a 2018 interview.
“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.”
Demopoulos, whose father was a DJ and manager and mother an exotic entertainer, said becoming a dancer saved her.
“For me, this was just, like, following the family. When I started in the industry, it was nice to have that type of guidance from my parents to tell me what was right and what was wrong, so I didn’t go down the wrong path,” she said.
“Growing up, I wasn’t awesome. I got myself caught in a lot of drugs, and I got myself homeless as a teenager. So, growing into an adult and becoming an exotic dancer really saved me and helped shape me in a more positive light.”
Demopoulos’ win against Juarez marked her first UFC win and her second-ever UFC bout. She lost to JJ Aldrich in August by unanimous decision.
Demopoulos is now 7-4 in her fighting career.
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