Athletes
Vanessa Demopoulos Is Grateful For This Life
Strawweight Vanessa Demopolous Is Motivated To Keep Her Dreams Alive And Pick Up Her Third Win In A Row At UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Brady
Despite an impressive UFC run that includes five wins in seven outings on the lead-up to her Saturday bout with Jaqueline Amorim, you’d have a better chance of catching Vanessa Demopoulos with a left hook or heel hook than catching her in a bad mood.
And she pleads guilty to the charge.
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“I live a good life,” she said. “I'm living my dreams, man. What do I ever have to complain about?”
Well, if this fighting thing doesn’t work out, she can always be a life coach. But wait, that is the post-fighting career plan.
“One day I will be a life coach,” she said. “That's on my list of to-dos.”
The 35-year-old will be a damn good one, given all she’s overcome to get to this place in her life, where she’s not only chasing her dreams at the top level of her profession, but she’s making headway in a tough division and on a two-fight winning streak heading into this weekend’s fight at the APEX in her adopted hometown of Las Vegas, where she just bought a house, effectively putting down roots after years of traveling to get the training she wanted and needed. Of course, being settled and happy makes you wonder if she’s still hungry.
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She is.
“Before I was a fighter, being an entertainer, I made plenty of money,” said Demopoulos. “And that's not what it's ever been about to me. I genuinely love fighting. I love competing in anything. And especially when you got somebody across from you that's trying to cause bodily harm to your person, it's pretty hard to not be f**king motivated, in my eyes. So I just love this sport, I love everything about the sport, and I don't need motivation to stay hungry. I have passion.”
That passion is reflected in everything the “Lil’ Monster” does, in and out of the Octagon, and where it comes from, only she knows. But rest assured that as she reveals little pieces of her story here and there, it’s evident that while there are smiles everywhere these days, that wasn’t always the case. She did make it out of those dark places, though, and that’s something to be proud of, whether she wins a hundred fights or never wins again.
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“I think it's more of a personal thing at this stage of my life than it is a public thing, because I really don't share too much,” Demopoulos said. “I think because I walk around with such a big smile on my face that people forget. And, to me, I'm grateful for the life that I live, but I think I'm so far removed from that homeless kid that I was that it's hard for others to remember that. And I don't need them to. Even recently, I was having a conversation with somebody and I said something about how I was a stripper, and they were like, ‘What? Dude, no way.’ I'm like, ‘How do you not know? That's the biggest part of my story.’ And I think it's kind of a wakeup call to me that I'm not that girl anymore and I haven't been her for a long time at this point. The stripper part has only been three years, but especially the other things, the rougher parts of my life, I'm so far removed that when I do become a public speaker one day, and when I really start sharing my story after I'm done fighting, I think I will make a bigger impact with that type of stuff. But, right now I'm just living in the present. And if people don't know that part of my story, cool, man, more power to 'em. And I'm proud of the fact that I'm so different than I once was.”
One thing hasn’t changed is her desire to get to the top of the strawweight division, challenge for the belt, and put that belt on a shelf somewhere in her new home. A win on Saturday will move her closer, and unlike some of her peers who claim to not care about where a particular fight will lead them in the future, Demopoulos is not that fighter. She cares. But first things first.
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“I am so hungry,” she said. “I know my potential in this division. I know my potential as a fighter. I know what I'm capable of. I've trained with half of the girls in the Top 15. I've fought some of them. I know where I stand, and I know what I can be, and that drives me. But also, I’m not in the Top 15 yet, and I’ve got to just be where I'm at right now. I only have one job to do, and that's beat the f**k out of whoever stands in front of me. I can't care about, ‘Oh, well, this is going to get me a title shot; this is going to get me in the rankings.’ I’ve got to just do my job. I’ve got to put my head down and I’ve got to beat the s**t out of somebody.”
UFC Fight Night: Burns vs Brady took place live from UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 7, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!