I was a stripper who choked out punters who didn’t pay – now I’m a UFC contender chasing a title
Ava Hudson
Updated on April 07, 2026
UFC contender Vanessa Demopoulos claims she used to use her MMA skills to choke out unruly customers during her days as a stripper.
‘Lil Monster’ is currently riding a three-fight win streak ahead of her strawweight match-up with Karolina Kowalkiewicz at UFC Vegas 73 on Saturday night.
6
During her recent run of good form, Demopoulos has won a legion of new fans with her excitable personality and signature celebration that has seen her jump into the arms of UFC commentators Joe Rogan and Michael Bisping.
However, it’s been a long road to get to this point for the 34-year-old who only quit stripping to focus fully on achieving her goals in MMA ahead of UFC 270 last year.
“I’ve always been a tough cookie. 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,” Demopoulos told talkSPORT.
“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.’
READ MORE ON Vanessa Demopoulos
6
6
“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!
“I’d spend all day long a hot, sweaty mess. My hair was all over the place, you’re sweating, messy, and then at night-time I’d get super-glammed up and super-beautiful and then go to work for my job.
“My passion was being in the gym and that’s all I wanted to do. So, I’d be training three to four times a day, every single day, and then going to work out at night.
“It’s like a cardio-gymnastic session for six-to-eight hours at a time. It was really wild. Yeah, the two contrasting lifestyles was something else, for sure.”
Most read in MMA
6
6
While juggling the two careers wasn’t always easy, Demopoulos claims her MMA skills came in handy when unsuspecting customers tried to steal from her.
“I’ve had to choke a couple of guys unconscious at work, you know,” she added with a chuckle.
“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.”
6
The 9-4 fighter admits that her decision to walk away from the dancing career which had paid her bills for years was not an easy one to make but says she simply had to back herself.
“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."
