Vanessa Demopoulos says $50K bonus is massive after quitting job as a stripper, planned on jumping in Joe Rogan’s arms after the fight
Vanesa Demopoulos had an interesting UFC 270 fight, to say the least.
Demopoulos was facing Silvana Juarez Gomez in her second fight and got dropped early and was nearly finished with ground and pound. However, once on the ground, she started to use her jiu-jitsu and got ahold of an arm, and got the tap to pick up her first UFC win.
“When I came to it, I had no idea I was out sort of, like I had no clue she was ground and pounding me until after the fight and someone told me,” Demopoulos said to BJPENN.com. “One second I am on my feet and the next thing I remember is I was doing jiu-jitsu so I thought maybe I took her down, but I didn’t care as the focus was getting the arm and getting the finish.”
Not only did Demopoulos pick up her first UFC win, but she also got a Performance of the Night bonus. She says it is something she talked about getting every single day of training camp. It is also a major bonus as just before the fight, the former LFA strawweight champion quit her job as a stripper to do MMA full-time.
“I cried but I manifested that, I wrote it down every day, I made the cover photo on my phone saying I will get the $50K bonus,” Demopoulos said. “It’s even crazier that I was able to get it on this card I was on with two title fights and all these good fights…
“I can’t even put it into words. I’ve been dancing since I was 18-years-old and I knew I needed to put it to the side to focus on fighting,” Demopoulos continued. “I had put on my whiteboard, bust your ass for thousands instead of shaking it for dollars. That was so powerful to me. I didn’t tell anyone I quit this time until after the fight, and I’m officially done which is awesome.”
After getting the win as well, Vanessa Demopoulos did her post-fight interview and jumped in Joe Rogan’s arms. She said that was planned and she believes that is a key reason for her getting tens of thousands of new followers on social media.
“I wanted that, I planned on that. My plan in my post-fight interview was to jump in Joe Rogan’s arms and he was with it, it was awesome. I wanted that,” Demopoulos said.
Although Demopolous is still celebrating her first UFC win, she does plan on getting back in the gym soon and wants to return at UFC Columbus on March 26.
“I didn’t know there was a card in Columbus, I lived in Columbus for six years so I want to be on that card. I’m going to call my manager to hopefully get me on that card,” Demopoulos said.
Who would you like to see Vanessa Demopolous fight next?
