Laura Sanko has undeniably earned her spot as UFC announcer

By E. Spencer Kyte | Posted 1 year ago

Laura Sanko lounges on a chaise under the shade of one of the mature trees that decorate her property. The lush green expanse includes creeks and cows and markers for a new fence that she’s trudged through the tall grass and Lord knows what else to set in the ground.

 

It’s a rare Friday where she is actually home — the result of Season 6 of Dana White’s Contender Series kicking off two weeks earlier. After serving as the backstage interviewer and ring announcer for the program’s first four seasons, Sanko added color commentary to her list of roles last year, and she’s back alongside play-by-play man Dan Hellie and a rotating cast of male former fighters for the 10-week Tuesday evening events again this season.

 

When Contender kicks off, Sanko presses pause on her other roles, which include, but are not limited to being one of the stars of the UFC Weigh-In Show, being an analyst for both the UFC and ESPN, backstage reporting, UFC social media quick hits, working with Train Alta, and her One-On-One YouTube channel, as well as being a wife, mother, sister, daughter, and friend.

 

“It’s been really,” began Sanko, pausing to find the exact right word to express the range of emotions that come with reaching this point in her professional career. “It’s a weird mixture of incredibly validating and gratifying, but incredibly hard at the same time. I think all-consuming is the right phrase, and anytime you are myopic about something, it means that you are, to some degree, taking your eye off something else.

 

“It’s a lot like a fighter when you say, ‘What have you sacrificed to get here?’ and they say things like, ‘I’m missing out on hanging out with my friends and name the foods they miss, and it’s really not that different.”

 

She would know, and not just because of the amount of time she spends speaking with and about UFC athletes and those hoping to join those ranks.

 

Sanko is a former fighter, having logged a number of amateur appearances and enjoyed a great deal of success before making her pro debut with a second-round submission win over Cassie Robb at Invicta FC 4 on January 5, 2013. She trained with the crew that now operates as Glory MMA & Fitness, headed by James Krause, and continues to log hours on the mats and hitting pads, whether she’s at home or on the road.

 

Landing the role of “expecting mother” forced her to rethink her future in the cage, but even then, transitioning to working in front of the camera only began as a favor to Invicta FC head honcho Shannon Knapp, who needed someone to interview legendary standout Marloes Coenen and asked Sanko if she’d be up for the challenge.

 

The former fighter said yes and she’s been chasing down opportunities since.

 

“I missed my best friend’s 40th birthday when I was — where was I? I can’t even remember…” she says, genuinely unsure, which only underscores how hectic the last year has been for the 39-year-old talent. “I think I was in Singapore, and I woke up and saw pictures from the party, and I’m not afraid to admit that I was sitting there eating breakfast by myself in the little hotel breakfast buffet and I burst out crying because I don’t want to miss stuff like that.

 

“I want to be a good friend, and I want to be as good a mom as I can be, and all of those things, but you can’t be 100% of everything; it’s just not possible. Every day is literally a battle to be as much as I can be to reach this goal, but also find moments to be 100% present at home or with my friends, which just leads to me multi-tasking a lot.”

 

While friends and family find it easier to understand and accept, it’s her 8-year-old son who struggles with mom’s hectic schedule the most.

 

“It’s really hard when it’s back-to-back-to-back,” says Sanko, who brought her family with her to Las Vegas last weekend for Contender Series, allowing them to see first-hand where she works and not have to spend more time apart. “He’s pretty good about it during Contender Series. I go away for three days, but then I’m home for four days, and there is an end to it; it’s a specific time like fight camp where we can all hunker down for it.

 

“But before the first week of Contender, I had something for Train Alta in San Jose, and then I got home, was home for 10 hours, and then left for Contender Series. And then I was home for 10 hours and I left for UFC 277. And then I was home for 10 hours and I left for Contender Series Week 2.

 

“Those are tough, and he gets upset, and I am just covered in mom-guilt.”

 

One of the things that helps Sanko push through that guilt and keep pressing forward is that she is fully aware that the opportunity she has in this moment and the next steps she wants to take are not just her own.

 


 

In March, the UFC released a 10-minute video profile on the budding star, tracing her journey from kids karate to being the on-camera force of nature she is now, and toward the end of the piece, James Krause expressed the sentiment that continually drives Sanko each and every day.

 

“I’ve gotta think that there is some 7-year-old little girl that says, ‘I want to do commentary for the UFC one day,’” the former fighter turned championship head coach said. “Until she came along, that didn’t even seem like a possibility.”

 

And Krause is correct.

 

Kathy Long was part of the broadcast team for the inaugural UFC event in November 1993, but until Sanko sat down between Hellie and Paul Felder for the first episode of Contender last fall, no other female had occupied the role of analyst.

 

There are talented females that are a part of UFC broadcasts every week, including Megan Olivi, Karyn Bryant, and Heidi Androl, but they have been limited to traditional roles as hosts and reporters.

 

Now Sanko is forging a lane for herself and the generations that will follow, and she accepts that role with pride, even if she winces when you call her a trailblazer.

 

“I’m starting to feel it more and more, and it’s a weight I’m very excited to carry,” Sanko says of being the first female analyst in the modern UFC. “I don’t mean weight in any sort of negative way.

 

“It’s a responsibility that I am very, very aware of, which is why before the last Contender Series, I was exhausted, and I was like, ‘How long have I been studying these guys?’ I counted it up and I spend about three hours on each person, give or take, so between 30-40 hours, per card, and I do that because I cannot afford to be less than perfect.”

 

Her demeanor shifts — the bright, effervescent personality tucked away and replaced by someone ready to dive into the muck and speak about the challenges that she and she alone faces in trying to establish herself in this role.

 

“I can’t afford to be anything less than the best version of me I can possibly be because I don’t have a title to point to, and I don’t have a long Tapology page that I can send people a link to where I can say, ‘Look how much I clearly know because I’ve done this stuff,’” says Sanko, indirectly addressing the questions about her credentials and much narrower margin of error she has in comparison to her male counterparts or established female fighters that transition into the commentary or analyst roles during or at the end of their careers. “When I’m tired and I’m tempted to cut corners — and I know I probably could and still be just fine, probably isn’t good enough from me as the only one who is doing it.

 

“If I f*** up, it’s really screwing it up for more than just myself. I genuinely feel that way, and I know I’ll feel it if and when I get to call that Fight Night.

 

“It doesn’t even have to be that bad,” she says, chasing her words with a wry smile. “There is always someone out there that just has to mansplain to me — I’ll call a move something and they’re like, ‘What a f****** idiot — she called a body triangle a figure four,’ and I’m like, ‘It’s the same thing! It’s the same thing!’ I know that when “DC” (former two-division UFC champ Daniel Cormier) accidentally calls an anaconda (choke) a D’Arce (choke), they’re not tagging him and telling him what a f****** idiot he is.”

 

She laughs and shakes her head, completely correct in her assessment and fully aware of the different standards she’s held to and the additional obstacles and justifications all females in traditionally male roles face as they endeavor to create space for themselves.

 

No one batted an eye when Cormier, Dominick Cruz, Michael Bisping or Paul Felder joined the rotation of broadcast analysts while still active fighters, and absolutely no one has suggested any of them garnered their positions through scandalous means.

 

Those questions and comments are reserved for Sanko and Sanko alone because her professional fighting career spanned one fight and took place outside of the spotlight, in a division that still does not exist in the UFC. She dares to be an ambitious, intelligent woman battling to have a seat at a table where men have historically sat.

 

It extends beyond her broadcast contemporaries though, and that’s what really gets under her skin.

 

“You’ll see people getting into Twitter debates about me, which is such a weird thing to see happening, and someone will be like, ‘WTF dude, she had one fight — what does she know?’ and I want to be like, ‘I had eight fights, and how many fights has (Xtreme Couture head coach) Eric Nicksick had? Zero!’

 

“There are so many well-respected coaches that you would never question their knowledge or their understanding of this sport, and I’m going to guess that it’s because (what’s between their legs),” she adds, bursting out laughing. “That’s the one time I’m like, ‘Yeah, I guess there is a little sexism in this.’

 

“I don’t think it’s all rooted in sexism, but when it comes down to that, it’s like, ‘That is definitely because I’m a girl.’”

 

But she’s a girl that knows her stuff, forwards and back, and remains hyper-vigilant when it comes to adding to her knowledge base and proving herself at every turn.

 

When how fights are judged became a widely discussed topic in the MMA community, she reached out to Irish journalist Sean Sheehan, one of the experts on the subject in the media, and then brought referee Kevin MacDonald to Missouri in order to complete both the refereeing and judging training programs, adding “Licensed MMA Judge in the State of Missouri” to her growing list of credentials.

 

She’s taken to putting more instructional videos up on her Instagram page to showcase the work she does in the gym, and sits down with journalists and other analysts to preview and review fights and events seemingly every week, in addition to the copious hours she puts in preparing for those five Contender Series fights every Tuesday for 10 weeks.

 

“Any time I can carve out a little extra bit of credibility a little more, for sure I’m going to freakin’ do it,” says Sanko, whose star started to shine when she was tabbed to join Hellie, Cormier, and veteran coach and analyst Din Thomas as part of the UFC Weigh-In Show that airs during the Friday morning weigh-ins ahead of each UFC pay-per-view event.

 

“That show has been perfect for me because I can be funny, I can be crude, I can be one of the guys, and slam beers, and choke down hot dogs,” says the admittedly competitive broadcaster, who had to be talked out becoming a viral video star during a hot dog eating contest on the set of the show ahead of UFC 276.

 

Sanko and Cormier, who won the hot dog eating contest, have become close friends and quality rivals on the program, but she was admittedly unsure how things would go between the two, so she let him know whom he was dealing with right out of the gate.

 

It wasn’t meant just for him either.

 

“I knew he wasn’t going to be disrespectful, but that show is a vibe, and I was worried that he would be like, ‘What the f*** is she doing here?’ and I did a couple things very intentionally before we were on air where I just came out of the gate swinging, giving him s***,” she recalls. “I let him know like, ‘I know you don’t know me very well, but I hear we’re going to be competing for stuff on this show, so just so you know, I will not be holding back.’

 

“I told him, ‘You need to know that I spent the last 15 years in an MMA gym — I am incapable of being offended, so f****** bring it!’

 

“I had one first chance to show him, and the producers, and the audience, and everybody else that (a) I can fit in, (b) I can hang, and (c) I can have very intelligent and insightful things to say about these fights.”

 

And she’s done so every single time she’s gotten the chance, which includes her time as one of two analysts on the Contender Series broadcasts and flying solo alongside veteran British play-by-play man John Gooden earlier this year during the opening round of the Road to UFC competition in Singapore.

 

She and Gooden had an instant on-screen chemistry and worked extremely well together as a two-person booth — the Brit setting the stage with his refreshingly unique style and tenor, and Sanko dropping technical insights and personal details about the parade of unheralded talents marching into the Octagon in hopes of one day reaching the UFC.

 

Road to UFC was critical in a different way because it was the first and only time — Invicta, LFA, all of it — where I was the only color commentator,” says Sanko. “I was nervous about doing it, not because I thought I wasn’t capable, but (you get in your head a little).

 

“I think it’s a lot more palatable to some viewers to have a woman mixed in with a man in terms of commentary, and I was like, ‘Are they going to be okay if it’s only a woman on commentary?’ and they were.”

 

She’ll call the semifinal round toward the end of October after her 10-week run on Contender Series wraps, and from there, she’ll have two months to achieve her goal of calling a UFC Fight Night event before the year is out.

 

It’s one of the few goals she has left to cross off her professional “To Do List,” with the other currently being a little like Voldemort in the Harry Potter series — something we’re not going to say out loud yet.

 

In truth, she’s already proven herself capable of handling the role, as it’s no different than what she does on Contender Series or Road to UFC, and everything she’s done to this point suggests that she would thrive on an even bigger stage.

 

But it’s not something she assumes will happen, and as such, she takes every opportunity to log more reps, garner more experience, and increase her knowledge base until there is no way for the UFC to keep her out of one of those two analysts chairs during a Fight Night broadcast.

 

“I have to make myself undeniable,” she says when asked what it’s going to take in order to cross that penultimate goal off her list. “I have to do everything; that’s the answer.

 

“I have to do everything to make myself undeniable in this role, and I know — I know — that if they let me slide into an empty chair one day, I know that I can prove that not only am I worthy of being there, but I can bring in a new fan base.”

 

Sanko pauses, gathering herself a little, because this isn’t just about her ambitions, her dreams, and her wants.

 

“Little girl athletes need to hear women speaking about the sport too, and they need to know if your future ends as a fighter, there are other avenues,” she says. “The number of women that come up to me now and thank me for what I’m doing is growing exponentially.

 

“I was at (interim UFC flyweight champion) Brandon Moreno’s after-party and a young woman came up to me and thanked me. That stuff is crazy and it never gets old, and it definitely pushes me forward in those moments where I’m exhausted and alone in a hotel room, sitting in front of my computer for the seventh hour and all I want to do is take a nap or go out and do something fun.

 

“But I can’t and I won’t until I’ve made myself undeniable.”



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