Former UFC fighter defends Laura Sanko against Jamie Varner's criticism, lauds her accolades in "guy-oriented environment"

A former UFC fighter recently voiced his support for Laura Sanko amid criticism she received from Jamie Varner, noting that she brings a lot to the promotion's broadcast team.

Alan Jouban has been a longtime fixture on the UFC broadcasts during his career and even after retirement. The former welterweight competitor joined the vast majority of the MMA community in supporting Sanko by highlighting the roles in different areas of the broadcast, especially as a women.

During his appearance on MMA Fighting's The Fighter vs. The Writer, Jouban heaped praise for the Sanko for excelling in role regardless of where she is assigned on the broadcast and mentioned that she is a valuable asset to the promotion. He said:

"Laura's [Sanko] a unicorn for the UFC...That's why they love her... Because how many of us that do this can do color commentary...desk job post and pre-fight show...sideline reporting...interviews backstage, and also has a great personality? [She] can go do the weigh-in show and hold her own against former champions drinking beer in a very guy-oriented environment and hold her own. She can do all these jobs and hang with everybody."

See Jouban's comments below:

It will be interesting to see whether the strong support for Sanko will result in Varner changing his stance and retracting his criticism.

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How did Laura Sanko react to Jamie Varner's criticism?

Laura Sanko didn't take Jamie Varner's criticism too lightly and didn't shy away from clapping back at the former UFC lightweight.

After Varner made it known how he felt about Sanko's ability as a broadcaster, she took to her X account and responded by recounting competing on the same card as him in 2011, mentioning that he's free to have his own opinion. She wrote:

"We warmed up next to each other in the basement of the Memorial Hall building in KCK...It's ok that you don't like my commentary, but respectfully, I've been a part of this game and training since 2006. I'm a brown belt in Jiu Jitsu and while I can't compare my career to yours I have in fact fought. And if UFC had a 105[-pound] division, I would have fought a lot longer."

Sanko's tweet responding to Varner's criticism [Image courtesy: @laura_sanko - X]