MMA Fighter Vanessa Demopoulos Explains Her Decision to Quit Being a Stripper

Stripping or fighting?

Vanessa Demopoulos had that very tough decision, as she made the decision to leave the world of exotic dancing for her MMA career.

Vanessa recently won her first fight and made $50,000 for the performance of the night bonus. She earned $24,000 for the fight.

All in she made almost 75k for one night of work.

She’s pretty happy with her decision to focus full time on MMA.

“I said [I worked as an exotic dancer for] 13 years, but it was longer than that, because I started dancing at 18 years old,” Demopoulos told MMA Fighting. “I’m 33 now, I’ve written two books on the industry, I grew up in the industry, and walking away from it was one of the scariest things I have ever done. It’s just so scary, man, because that was the way I was making money all of these years to fight full-time.

“I didn’t have a lot of money,” Demopoulos said. “It’s not like I was good [financially] — I wasn’t good, dude. I wasn’t good, and I made the decision and walked away. If it wasn’t for sponsors, there’s no freaking way I’d be able to do any of that. It was a scary time.”

“I love pole dancing, I love doing all the acrobatics and stuff in the air, but I don’t have to be a stripper to do that. I don’t have to be a dancer in a club. I was dancing with my sister while we were in the car driving up the street. I got out of the car at a red light and started dancing in the street. I’m wild, man, so I don’t need to be in that atmosphere to do that. Trust me, I’m gonna get my artistic compulsions out via dance in many other ways, but it’s not going to be in the club anymore.”

As long as she can make ends meet fighting, I’m all for her decision to fight full time.

Check out more of the former stripper below:

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