Athletes
Vanessa Demopoulos | All About Impact
Strawweight Vanessa Demopoulos Still Has Hopes Of Becoming A Champion, But Wants To Leave A Lasting Impression On The Sport
Don’t sleep on Vanessa Demopoulos because she’s been out of the Octagon since September of last year. She was still thinking about punching somebody in the face, and she acted accordingly.
“I love being a student,” she said. “I love learning, I love growing, and I think what’s honestly kept me an athlete for the last 15 years is that I genuinely enjoy learning new things. So, for me, I get to have the most fun in between camps, when I'm training with new people and I'm going out and I'm exploring different stuff and I'm learning crazy things and I'm finding out more and more things. I feel like fighting is this giant anomaly and everybody thinks that they have the answer on paper, but I'm constantly growing and evolving, so whether I'm in camp or not, that always keeps me engaged.”
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Now with a fight scheduled for this Saturday against Talita Alencar, the Cleveland native and Las Vegas resident is back in camp, but the desire to keep evolving has not waned. In fact, it’s motivated her even more as she looks to bounce back from a loss to Jaqueline Amorim that snapped a two-fight winning streak. And while the focus is always on the fight in front of her, there’s still that desire, at 36, to one day put a strawweight championship belt around her waist and, more importantly, leave a lasting impression on the sport.
“I think that when I first came to the UFC, the title was my goal, and it still is, but more so than the title, I want to make an impact,” Demopoulous said. “I want to create legacy. I want to fight for myself, and I want to fight in the moment, and I want to want to do what I love. I want to beat the s**t out of people, and I want people to hear me and see me. And I want to be able to help millions of people through my story of overcoming and becoming. So, for me, it's about impact at this point.”
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She’s left an impression, even if she hasn’t fought her way into the title conversation yet. And a lot of that comes down to not just being able to fight, but to be able to share her story and have an emotional connection with her fanbase. That’s rare.
“I feel like there's fighters out there who people will never know their name and they're some of the most talented athletes that have ever walked,” she said. “And it's a shame, but it's because maybe they're not marketable or maybe they don't know how to say something. I think it needs to be a perfect storm. There's a lot that's involved in fighting, that is more than just going out there and punching somebody in the face.”
Demopoulos has always gotten it. And when she’s been on a roll on fight night, to the tune of separate winning streaks of three and two fights, it appeared that the perfect storm was approaching.
“You’ve got to know when that mic is hot,” she said. “You’ve got to know what's happening when the moment is happening. So I love it, and yeah, it's a part of it. I'm an entertainer in my heart. I'm an artist. I've always been an artist. So the cage is where I get to shine, and then when you give me a mic, that's when I also get to shine because I'm used to that. I like the attention, I want it. I thrive on that.”
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Key defeats to Karolina Kowalkiewicz and Amorim paused her momentum, but she reeled off wins over Kanako Murata and Emily Ducote after dropping a decision to Kowalkiewicz in 2023, and she expects to start a new winning streak this weekend. After that, who knows? But the “Lil’ Monster” is here for all of it.
“Everything else is going to unfold along the way,” she said. “Listen, if I wake up and find myself in a title position, hey, I'm that bitch and that can f**king happen. But I think, overall, impact and helping people and doing what I love and beating the s**t out of people along the way is definitely grade A for me. If that's what happens, I'm living a good life.”
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