Vanessa Demopoulos is a UFC strawweight athlete who has somewhat of an unusual background – that has helped her martial arts career tremendously.
And what’s her background, you ask? Well, she used to work as a pole dancer!
Demopoulos has worked as a pole dancer for 13 years and she attributes the dancing skills to her fast MMA progress.
She still remembers her first Muay Thai class, though, and how difficult it was:
I remember the first time when I stepped into the gym to do a Muay Thai class.
It was, like, literally the hardest thing I had ever done. I threw up, I almost passed out about four times.
But, the way fighting made me feel, it was the only thing I ever wanted to do.
She made the decision to quit her pole dancing job and fully dedicate herself to martial arts.
Her dancing skills translated particularly well when it comes to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu:
For me, dancing and fighting are very similar.
You have to have a very good spatial awareness, flexibility, and dexterity, and that translates beautifully into Jiu-Jitsu.
I incorporate a lot of pole dancing moves into Jiu-Jitsu.
Watch the video below for more of an insight into Vanessa Demopoulos’s life and journey. It’s super insightful:
