Laura Sanko has been a part of the UFC broadcast team for years now and there is something she wants to see added to the UFC and that is a women’s atomweight division.
The interviewer believes that there are enough talented atomweights for the UFC to build a division around.
“I’m probably gonna get all sorts of flack for saying this, but I think the UFC has proven that women’s MMA is a very good business to be in,” Sanko said during a recent media scrum (via Farah Hannoun & John Morgan of MMA Junkie). “I think the featherweight division is exciting in its own right because you get big punchers, and you get big finishes, and you have Amanda Nunes. I mean, who doesn’t wanna see Amanda Nunes fight no matter what weight class it is? But I will say that if you’re looking to tap into markets like China, like the rest of Asia, there are a lot of atomweight women over there, a lot, and there are a lot in the United States, as well.”
Currently, the UFC has three women’s weight classes, with those being flyweight, bantamweight and featherweight. Sanko also says that there are women in the UFC competing at strawweight could also compete at atomweight.
“I think that there’s a handful of girls that fight at strawweight that are much better suited to be atomweights,” Sanko said. “I know Loma Lookboonmee has put on some muscle and obviously doing good things at strawweight, but she’s a natural atomweight. Jessica Penne used to be an atomweight, Michelle Waterson used to be atomweight – I don’t know if Michelle Waterson can make atomweight anymore, because she is stacked and there’s a whole crew of really talented women coming up through Invicta.”
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