Wimp2Warrior is pleased to announce that Laura Sanko has joined the company as their first brand ambassador. The initial announcement was made earlier today by way of John Kavanagh’s Instagram Live, and comes less than a month after Rich Chou took over as VP, North America. Sanko’s addition marks the first of a series of formal relationships that the company will be making with high-profile personalities and fighters in the MMA space.
Sanko has become a staple on broadcasts throughout the MMA industry, regularly providing analysis for the UFC, LFA, and Invicta FC. In addition to her background as a fighter, BJJ purple belt, and Muay Thai practitioner, Sanko’s analysis and interviews have become a mainstay on MMA broadcasts, and a stabilizing bridge to both new and longtime fans of the sport.
By joining the Wimp2Warrior team, Sanko will work in conjunction with Chou by extending her reach directly to prospective men and women who have long considered training, by being a bridge in helping them take their first steps in finding their own journey within on the mats and in martial arts. Additionally, Chou and team will look to Sanko to leverage her relationships with professional fighters, coaches, and gym owners to further educate them on the W2W program and lay the foundation on how the transformative program can serve as an organic on-ramp for prospective new members while providing much-needed subsidies and resources to gym owners and their academies.
“Our first order of business is building a team of recognizable faces within the MMA community who represent our ideals, and who have had relatable experiences in their path to training,” said Chou. “From the moment we spoke to Laura, we were blown away by her balance of understanding of how we are trying to change lives through the W2W program with understanding how to translate our B2B vision directly to the gym owners we look to partner with.”
“Simply put, Wimp2Warrior is the most life-changing fitness program on the planet—because MMA is so much more than just fitness. It seems contradictory to say, but in many ways, combat sports challenge you mentally more than physically, and that mental journey is where the magic happens. MMA feels so far outside most people’s comfort zones that we often put it on the “I could never do that” shelf. Wimp2Warrior makes MMA accessible to everyone. I’m so excited to be a part of this company as we invite people of all ages, across the nation, to find their inner warrior. Everyone has a warrior inside them, but at the end of the day, it’s not about being some sort of superhero or badass. The journey to finding that side of yourself is life-changing. I know this because it’s my story too.”
For the past 14 years, Laura Sanko has dedicated herself to the sport of MMA. In 2007, Laura began training MMA in her hometown of Kansas City and, in short order, the sport she initially thought would be a fitness routine became central to her life. She competed both as an amateur and a professional mixed martial artist from 2009 to 2013. When pregnancy forced her to step away from competition, Laura remained close to the sport by beginning a career in MMA broadcasting. Initially working as a sideline reporter for the all women’s promotion, Invicta FC, Laura’s talents were soon noticed by the UFC where she began as a sideline reporter in 2016. Since then Laura has been a fixture of UFC broadcasts both as a reporter and, more recently, as an analyst. Her in-depth knowledge of MMA along with a genuine love of the sport and its participants shine through on camera, and have quickly made her one of the brightest rising stars in MMA broadcasting. She currently resides in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, with her husband Nathan and their 7-year-old son, Burke.
Over 10,000 people from 90+ gyms worldwide have completed W2W’s “Warrior Training Program”, adding millions of dollars in revenue for their partners in recent years. The company is aggressively expanding their existing presence in North America, where they have previously partnered with Montreal’s Tristar (Firas Zihabi), Long Island’s LAW MMA (Chris Weidman, Ray Longo), San Francisco’s El Nino Training Center (Gilbert Melendez), San Jose’s AKA Training Center (Javier Mendez), Las Vegas Xtreme Couture (Randy & Ryan Couture), Dublin California’s Combat Sports Academy (Kirian Fitzgibbon) SBG Portland (Matt Thornton) and more.
For more information, please visit www.wimp2warrior.com