{"id":288713,"date":"2023-09-05T07:35:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T07:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=288713"},"modified":"2023-09-05T07:35:21","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T07:35:21","slug":"meet-the-glamorous-ex-pro-mma-fighter-whos-set-to-make-ufc-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/mma\/meet-the-glamorous-ex-pro-mma-fighter-whos-set-to-make-ufc-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the glamorous ex-pro MMA fighter who&apos;s set to make UFC history"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Meet glamorous ex-pro MMA fighter Laura Sanko who&#8217;s set to make UFC history for the SECOND time as the octagon action comes to Sydney<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Laura Sanko will make pay-per-view debut in Sydney<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Sanko will be first female colour commentator at PPV<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Ex-pro says calling the event is a &#8216;dream come true&#8217;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>UFC broadcaster Laura Sanko will make history when UFC 293 hits\u00a0Sydney\u00a0on Sunday by becoming the first female colour commentator to call a UFC pay-per-view in the organisation&#8217;s modern era.<\/p>\n<p>The former professional MMA fighter, 40, has been a part of UFC broadcasts since 2016 &#8211; working as a reporter backstage and working with the commentary team on Dana White&#8217;s Contender Series.<\/p>\n<p>Sanko called her first official event earlier in the year at Fight Night 281 in Las Vegas, and says it is a &#8216;dream come true&#8217; to be doing colour commentary duties for a pay-per-view event in Sydney.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I&#8217;m honored to join the commentary team for UFC 293 alongside @jon_anik and @dc_mma, she wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n<p><span>&#8216;Dream come true. Before I was an mma analyst or competitor, I was a fan just like most of you reading this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/05\/06\/75061679-12480819-Broadcaster_Laura_Sanko_will_make_her_pay_per_view_debut_at_UFC_-a-6_1693891735379.jpg\" height=\"543\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Broadcaster Laura Sanko will make her pay-per-view debut at UFC 293 in Sydney on Sunday<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/05\/06\/75061681-12480819-Sanko_a_former_MMA_professional_has_been_a_part_of_UFC_broadcast-a-5_1693891734884.jpg\" height=\"672\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sanko, a former MMA professional, has been a part of UFC broadcasts since 2016<\/p>\n<p><span>&#8216;Almost 20 years later, I&#8217;m here and excited to be a small part of connecting our incredible fanbase to the fighting art of these amazing athletes. See you in Sydney!&#8217;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Sanko will join lead commentator Jon Anik from cageside and\u00a0UFC Hall of Famer and former two-division champ Daniel Cormier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Megan Olivi will assist as a roving reporter at the event, while former UFC star Din Thomas will join as an in-fight analyst throughout the day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Sanko debuted as a professional fighter in 2013 at Invicta FC 4 against Cassie Rob and won via submission in the second round.<\/p>\n<p>She stopped fighting shortly afterwards for family reasons, before later returning to the scene to interview fighters.<\/p>\n<p>UFC boss Dana White spoke about how happy he was for Sanko to call her first official event in Las Vegas earlier in the year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I can&#8217;t think of anyone better to be the first female color commentator for the modern UFC era than Laura,&#8217; said White. &#8216;She has worked incredibly hard to prove herself and get to this position and I couldn&#8217;t be prouder to have her calling the action.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, Sanko slammed critics who claimed she only got her job because of her looks.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/05\/06\/75061671-12480819-Sanko_said_being_included_in_the_broadcast_team_for_UFC_293_is_a-a-8_1693891735381.jpg\" height=\"793\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sanko said being included in the broadcast team for UFC 293 is a dream come true<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/05\/06\/75061775-12480819-Sanko_debuted_as_a_professional_fighter_in_2013_but_stopped_shor-a-7_1693891735380.jpg\" height=\"334\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sanko debuted as a professional fighter in 2013 but stopped shortly after for personal reasons<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There is a whole contingent of people out there that think I got this job in some untoward and scandalous way,&#8217; Sanko said on Blockasset&#8217;s BLOCK party podcast.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I can assure you that&#8217;s not how it happened.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But it helps that the people who sit next to me \u2013 the Anthony Smiths of the world, the Rashad Evans&#8217;s of the world, the Michael Bispings, the Paul Felders, the Daniel Cormiers \u2013 that I think people can sense they have a certain amount of respect for me and therefore the fans should, as well.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I really owe a lot to my male co-workers who are making a spot for me at the table.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/mma\/article-12480819\/Laura-Sanko-UFC-293-commentary-Sydney.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet glamorous ex-pro MMA fighter Laura Sanko who&#8217;s set to make UFC history for the SECOND time as the octagon action comes to Sydney Laura Sanko will make pay-per-view debut in Sydney Sanko will be first female colour commentator at PPV Ex-pro says calling the event is a &#8216;dream come true&#8217; UFC broadcaster Laura Sanko [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Meet the glamorous ex-pro MMA fighter who&amp;apos;s set to make UFC history - Sports Life Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/mma\/meet-the-glamorous-ex-pro-mma-fighter-whos-set-to-make-ufc-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the glamorous ex-pro MMA fighter who&amp;apos;s set to make UFC history - Sports Life Tale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Meet glamorous ex-pro MMA fighter Laura Sanko who&#8217;s set to make UFC history for the SECOND time as the octagon action comes to Sydney Laura Sanko will make pay-per-view debut in Sydney Sanko will be first female colour commentator at PPV Ex-pro says calling the event is a &#8216;dream come true&#8217; 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