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UNDENIABLE LAURA SANKO EARNS PPV BROADCAST OPPORTUNITY
Dana White’s Contender Series Staple Joins Jon Anik And Daniel Cormier On The Call Of UFC 293 This Weekend In Sydney
Saturday in Sydney, Australia, Laura Sanko will again make history, joining Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier on the broadcast team for UFC 293, marking the first time in the modern UFC era that a female broadcaster has called a UFC pay-per-view.
And until UFC 294 rolls around in October, it will mean that the first and most recent UFC pay-per-view events will have featured a female presence at the announcers desk, as Sanko will join Kathy Long, who called UFC 1, as the only two females to ever break down the action inside the Octagon on pay-per-view.
This is an historic moment, but one the talented analyst has been working towards for some time.
How To Watch UFC 293: Adesanya vs Strickland
As soon as Sanko got the broadcasting bug, she knew where she wanted to end up and what it would take to get there, and the former fighter had no reservations about putting in the time and effort required to work her way to that chair.
She knew that each step would bring the usual assortment of questions about whether she was actually experienced enough, skilled enough, knowledgeable enough to take on a bigger role. As such, her focus was always on showing people that she had what it took to sit alongside the parade of current and former UFC competitors that occupy the analyst positions on studio shows and event broadcasts without anyone questioning their bona fides, and it started before she ever got a chance to sit at one of those desks.
UFC 293 Embedded | All Episodes
Sanko and former UFC title challenger Megan Anderson began putting out their “Aussie & Fancy Breakdowns” ahead of UFC pay-per-views as a DIY means of showcasing their knowledge about the sport, their abilities on camera, and their insights as fight analysts, and anyone that tuned in immediately saw that the pair knew what they were talking about and brought something different to the landscape.
When Sanko and I spoke at the beginning of the second season of Dana White’s Contender Series, where she served as the post-fight interviewer and ring announcer, she made it clear that her aim was to serve as an analyst, wondering how many fights she would have to take in order for people to take her seriously in the role.
“If I’m being honest, there is a part of me that has thought, ‘How many fights do I need to go back and do in order to be taken seriously as an analyst?’ because I would love to be able to have some amount of work in that role,” she told me in August 2018. “I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to do it, but that would be a hope.”
How to Watch Dana White's Contender Series
Three years later, Sanko sat down alongside play-by-play man Dan Hellie and former UFC lightweight Paul Felder to call the action on Season 5 of the annual talent search series.
After jokingly wishing that Felder would come down with a last-minute case of strep throat that would require her to fill-in for him, the two sat beside one another, showcasing instant chemistry and working seamlessly with the veteran Hellie.
Laura Sanko Reflects On Her Journey To History | Breaking Barriers
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Laura Sanko Reflects On Her Journey To History | Breaking Barriers
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But just like the athletes that compete on the Tuesday night event, getting to call the fights on Contender Series was a checkpoint, a milestone for Sanko, not the final destination. Just as she had made it clear from the outset that serving as an analyst was her greater ambition, the Missouri native was always up front about her desire to call a UFC Fight Night event.
MORE UFC 293: Fighters On The Rise | Main Event Spotlight | Public Events Schedule
“I try not to count my chickens before they hatch, but that’s the hope,” she said at the time, once again acknowledging that these opportunities weren’t going to be handed to her and that she was willing to do the work necessary to prove she was capable of thriving in the role.
Last year’s Road to UFC series served as another clear indication that Sanko was not only able to occupy the analyst’s chair on a broadcast, but a rising star in the role, as she and British play-by-play man John Gooden crushed it on comms for the overseas tournament series. Well-researched and working off each other like long-time partners, Gooden and Sanko called the fights with the same depth and detail afforded to the biggest UFC events, and her serving as the sole analyst without much, if any pushback helped incredibly to push her forward in her quest to call a Fight Night event.
“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,” Sanko told me when we spoke about the experience last summer for OSDB Sports. “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.”
Fight By Fight Preview | UFC 293: Adesanya vs Strickland
And so it was only fitting that her first time calling a UFC Fight Night came in February, alongside Gooden and Michael “The Count” Bisping as the Road to UFC tournaments wrapped in Las Vegas.
“I had worked with these people before, I had worked at the APEX, so there was really nothing to be nervous about — it’s really the same thing — but I was nervous just because of what it was,” she said, recalling her first Fight Night broadcast when we sat down as part of my A Conversation With series on the Keyboard Kimura YouTube channel. “It really didn’t hit me until I was flying home the next day because then I just started sobbing.
“It was equal parts joy and relief, which is a weird emotion. But to be honest with you, it felt like a win in fighting, because there is always this weird elation of ‘I can’t believe what I just pulled off.’”
Having crossed the next item off her broadcasting “To Do List,” Sanko finally felt comfortable enough to verbalize the next achievement she wanted to unlock later in that same conversation.
“Of course I want to call a pay-per-view,” she said, laughing after we had just recounted tip-toeing around vocalizing that desire in the past because people may have misconstrued her desire with an sense of entitlement. “I”m well aware that that is something that doesn’t happen immediately for anybody, and the guys that call the pay-per-views — Joe (Rogan) and DC (Daniel Cormier) and (Michael) Bisping — they’re staples at that level, and even those guys have had to earn their stripes to get to that spot.
“I have no expectation that that is going to happen any time soon,” she continued. “But of course I would like to do that one day, once I’ve earned it.”
That conversation took place three months ago.
Saturday, Sanko make her pay-per-view debut in Sydney at UFC 293 alongside Anik and Cormier, where she’ll get to sit in the chair she’s wanted to sit in since beginning this adventure several years ago.
Like the fighters on the card that work their way up through the regional ranks, through Dana White’s Contender Series and smaller Fight Night shows to land on a UFC pay-per-view broadcast, Laura Sanko has earned her place at the announce desk.
She made herself undeniable, and now she just keeps making history.
UFC 293: Adesanya vs Strickland took place live from Qudos Arena in Sydney, Australia on September 9, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
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