MMA is a sport of controlled violence between two willing combatants, and few enjoy witnessing that more than UFC’s Laura Sanko.
Sanko is one of the UFC’s primary color commentators, and within that role she frequently gets to sit up close and personal next to the octagon. She sees the damage inflicted and dished out from inches away, can smell the stench of when blood is shed onto the canvas and everything in between that makes MMA such a raw and visceral form of sport.
“When I talk about MMA and everyone’s like, ‘Oh my God, it’s such a violent sport,'” Sanko told MMA Junkie. “My normal go-to is to say it’s not really true violence. Because true violence is when one person does not want to be there, and there’s a perpetrator and a victim. Right? And that’s not what this is. This is a sport. This is competition. Both men or both women want to be there.”
