Vanessa Demopoulos’ Saturday night went exactly as planned — she got a win, a bonus, and hoisted in the air by Joe Rogan in the post-fight interview.
Demopoulos made her second octagon appearance count with a slick submission win over Silvana Gomez Juarez during the preliminary card at UFC 270 in Anaheim this past weekend. The 33-year-old was dropped hard by a Juarez right hand and was in big trouble — even admitting she didn’t remember several seconds between the punch and recovery — before working towards an armbar that forced the tap in the first round.
After the win, Demopoulos got her post-fight interview with Rogan and fell into the UFC color commentator’s arms, which is just the way she drew it up.
THAT’S how you make the most of your post fight interview
[ @Monster_Demo | #UFC270 ] pic.twitter.com/L94yFHLE0F
— UFC (@ufc) January 23, 2022
“I do so much positive self talk and I thought, ‘Joe Rogan’s gonna interview me, this is gonna be my moment,'” Demopoulos told MMA Fighting. I’m going to wrap my arms around him and put one leg on top of the other. He’ll just lift me up. That’s what’s going to happen, and it was so flawless. It happened exactly the way I thought in my head over and over again. I was like, ‘Let’s go!’. He was just too cool to resist. He is a great guy.
” I first considered that idea when I found out I would be using a PPV-card. In just one week, I was able to experience so many different things. The fight went from APEX fighting to APEX fighting, to APEX fighting before a crowd. I also got to look around and see people I knew because of my vision. Joe Rogan came up to me to interview me. I continued manifesting the performance bonus.
” I had everything written all over the place. It’s in videos that I made with whiteboards and book markers. I also had the text on my cover phone. It was so cool to live it out than my imagination. F*ck, it was so cool, man!”
Demopoulos picked up her first octagon victory after dropping a unanimous decision to JJ Aldrich at August’s UFC Vegas 35 event. The former LFA strawweight champion got her UFC opportunity after coming up short on Dana White’s Contender Series in August 2020, losing a unanimous decision to contract winner Cory McKenna. She would go on to lose her title to now fellow UFC fighter Loopy Godinez at LFA 94 two months later.
It was surreal to win her first UFC victory after all she had to go through.
” Oh my God! I got up, looked over to see my coaches, I run over to the cage and I’m too short to really give them a hug so I jumped on top of the cage,” Demopoulos said. “I jumped off and there was a commissioner. I gave him a hug, too — I don’t even know that guy.
” It was just too cool. So cool.”
Currently, Demopoulos is smelling the roses and enjoying a memorable win that has seen her social media following jump up tremendously.
While Saturday’s performance has brought her attention and gained new followers, Demopoulos doesn’t want to sit back. She is determined to have an active year in the Octagon.
” I want to fight four solid times in the next year. It’s not something I thought of. Demopoulos stated that the what is gonna happen. After a performance such as that, they will want me to return soon. I would love to be back. I love training. Although I had hoped to compete in a few jiu jitsu tournaments, which I enjoy doing — MMA is my first love.
“I’m just so pumped to fight. It’s what I desire. That’s all I have to say about that thought process. I would like to fight 4 times in this year. It’s January, so it is still possible. I’m on a suspension, though. I got dropped. I woke up on the ground, so the commission came up to me, handed me a suspension and were like, ‘You can’t fight for a little while now.'”
