Laura Sanko, prior to being a backstage reporter for the UFC or the person conducting interviews after the fights with Invicta FC, was a rising atomweight fighter in women’s MMA. However, despite the success she has had as a fighter and as a backstage reporter/interviewer, Sanko has seen her popularity rise due to a kiss she cared with current Invicta FC Bantamweight Champion Tonya Evinger.
“I can’t deny it helped get me a little bit of attention,” she said to MMA Junkie. “I would love to say that that was the first time I’ve kissed someone after they’ve thrown up, but I feel like that would not be true.”
While Sanko has seen a boost in popularity after the kiss, the same cannot be said for Evinger, who has seen her share of hate mail rise since the incident.
“She got so much hate for that on Twitter, for months,” Sanko said. “To me, this whole thing is really funny. Then I start reading the stuff that they’re saying to her, about her, and I honestly started getting choked up.”
Evinger's forced kiss won't rank at the top of Sanko's list.
“It was not a great kiss,” she said. “I’m sure Tonya’s a great kisser, but we’re in front of thousands of people, and more thousands of people on television. It was a rather quick kiss. But when someone comes in close to you, in your space, you close your eyes, right?”
Sanko went 1-0-0 as a professional MMA fighter and 4-1-0 as an amateur MMA fighter, she retired after defeating Cassie Robb by submission at Invicta FC 4.
