Sanko has held a number of roles during her UFC broadcasting career, working her way up from a reporter to an analyst and commentator.<\/p>\n
But she adds: “The challenge was earning the respect of the guys I worked with, not demanding it and not expecting it to happen overnight. I had to prove I belonged there, not because I was a woman.”<\/p>\n
Unlike her male commentator peers, which includes former UFC champions Michael Bisping, Daniel Cormier and Dominick Cruz among others, Sanko carries a bigger weight when she is on air.<\/p>\n
Citing criticism from fans on social media, she doesn’t just represent the UFC and martial arts, but women as a whole.<\/p>\n
“It’s a different standard for the fans. I feel like I have to get it right, and not just for me,” says Sanko.<\/p>\n
“I have to get it right because if I suck, then all women suck. That’s just how it is.”<\/p>\n
Sanko is a trailblazer and beams at recalling stories of inspiring girls to start jiu-jitsu, and fathers telling her she is an example to their daughters of “what can be possible”.<\/p>\n
“On one hand you want to celebrate it and it is special, but on the other I look forward to the day it is not unique, and it’s not news,” she adds.<\/p>\n
“As much as I love being part of the history of this process, it’s also part of my goal that one day it’s not a big deal.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sanko has held a number of roles during her UFC broadcasting career, working her way up from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-331046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}