Bianca Wooden
Former MMA fighter Laura Sanko may not be throwing punches anymore, but her Instagram post still left her followers reeling!
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The 40-year-old shared a sunny beach selfie in an eye-catching orange bikini, with the straps of her top cheekily tucked under her arms to show off her shoulders.
“My quarterly thirst trap so the IG algorithm will pick me up again,” read the caption.
As can be expected, the post turned heads. Some commenters even asked her to join OnlyFans, according to The US Sun.
Former MMA Fighter Is a Knockout on the Beach
When she’s not looking stunning on the beach, Laura Sanko is a color commentator on ESPN. She’s the first woman on the UFC commentary team since kickboxer Kathy Long in 1993, the New York Post tells us.
Sanko has also had experience on the other side of the ring, so to speak. Although her fighting career was short-lived, she cites it as the catalyst for her current career.
“I didn’t come into this role because I had a broadcasting background, I had a fight background, which I think probably tells you a lot about my mindset and my drive, so that translates over to what I’m doing now,” she told Inside Fighting.
She continued, “Anybody that is really passionate about their work, regardless of what field they’re in, I think we all want to leave our mark in one way or another on the world, right? I think we all want to leave some sort of legacy behind us and so for me, not continuing my fighting career, I had a very short fighting career, this is my way of being able to leave my little fingerprint on the sport forever.”
The commentator stated in the 2022 interview that her eventual goal was to call a UFC Fight Night. Earlier this year, she reached that goal on UFC Fight Night 218 in Las Vegas, making her the first woman in that position.
Commenting on the hard work that led to this achievement, Sanko told USA Today, “The UFC is very much a meritocracy, so… everything here is earned, nothing’s given, even, you know, regardless of gender.”
