Laura Sanko calmly takes down Jamie Varner's unsolicited UFC on ESPN 53 mansplained hot take
“What do you say to a man with two black eyes?” the question goes.
Nothing. He’s already been told twice.
And in that vein, The Blue Corner will do its best to set editorial commentary to the side to just say this:
We don’t need to point out to Jamie Varner that doubling down on an out-of-left-field mansplaining social media post calling Laura Sanko a “clown” for her color commentary skills on the UFC on ESPN 53 broadcast Saturday night left him with not one, but two visible black eyes, at least in terms of how his comments went over. He no doubt knew the attention he was trying to stir up in a day and age that rewards polarizing hot takes.
It was Sanko, naturally, who landed the biggest punch of all with a classier rebuttal than Varner deserved.
Varner ripped Sanko for being a “try hard” and saying she doesn’t know about fighting and should “stay in your lane.” In a doubled-down second post, Varner said Sanko, who broke the glass ceiling as the first woman color commentator on a UFC broadcast in the so-called modern era, should “leave the commentary to the people that have actually fought.”
Problem is, Sanko has fought as an amateur and pro. She was sure to remind him of that in her response. She trains and is around the sport regularly arguably more than some of her male UFC commentary colleagues.
Varner did not announce to his fewer than 50,000 Twitter followers (Sanko has more than three times as many) what he thinks of UFC play-by-play voices Jon Anik, Brendan Fitzgerald or John Gooden, none of whom have fought professionally.
@jamievarner you and I actually fought on the same card in 2011 for Titan FC. We warmed up next to each other in the basement of the Memorial Hall building in KCK. My best friend braided your hair because you couldn’t find anyone to do it. I remember thinking how cool it was at…
— Laura Sanko (@laura_sanko) March 24, 2024
Varner had been quiet on Twitter since the Super Bowl, when he tweet-stormed his takes about the NFL being rigged, people who like Taylor Swift being a “p*ssy,” the NFL’s decision to have the Black National Anthem performed at the Super Bowl as “trash,” and more.
Varner has not fought since December 2014, when he tapped out to Drew Dober less than 2 minutes into the first round in front of his home fans in Phoenix. It was his fourth straight loss and one of five losses in six fights to end his career. That final loss was just three days removed from Varner’s 30th birthday.