'See that kid in the corner?'… Laura Sanko tells amazing story of discovering Charles Oliveira while training with Alex Pereira's coach
03/15/2025 05:25 AM
As UFC analyst Laura Sanko discovered firsthand, you can never judge a book by its cover – especially if that book reads 'do Bronx'.
Not only is Laura Sanko one of the best and most popular UFC pundits/commentators out there, but she's also an esteemed BJJ grappler and former MMA fighter herself.
In the early days of her career, Sanko trained under the tutelage of Plinio Cruz, future coach of light heavyweight superstar Alex Pereira, who once introduced her to a rather unassuming 'skinny, dorky' kid out in New Jersey.
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Laura Sanko recalls seeing Charles Oliveira for the first time
Earlier this week, Laura Sanko joined veteran UFC coach Eric Nicksick and co-host Randy Faehnrich on the 'Verse Us Podcast' to talk all things Mixed Martial Arts.
The near-two-hour-long podcast is packed with interesting and hilarious tales from around the MMA world; chief of which was Sanko's time training with Plinio Cruz, over a decade ago.
"He was a great coach to me… He always just treated me like everyone else, it was great… He was a great teacher, but he was really young, I think he was only a brown belt [at the time], I don't know how old he would've been but [he was] young."
As Sanko reminisced on her time training with Cruz, who would eventually go on to coach Alex Pereira, she remembered the first-ever time she saw Charles Oliveira in the training room.
"Funny story, I remember he was teaching at a gym in the city, but he was part of Macaco's Gold Team system in New Jersey where all the Brazilians lived so every once in a while, he'd be like 'Hey, we're going to take a group and we're going to go train at Macaco's this weekend, so come take a train with us and go out there'.
"And I remember one time, we went out there and he was like 'Do you see that kid in the corner there? That kid, that kid is going to be champion one day'… I look over, and there's this skinny, dorky, coke-bottle glasses kid sitting there and I'm like 'Okay, sure, looks like it'."
From Sanko's tone, she obviously didn't think that Cruz's assessment was either accurate or likely – it turns out that the 'skinny, dorky' kid in the corner was none other than future lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira.
Charles Oliveira ranked second-best BJJ grappler in UFC history
Charles Oliveira is perhaps the most beloved MMA fighter on the entire roster, having competed a whopping 34 times inside the UFC octagon since 2010 – racking up a record-setting 16 submission wins, so far.
However, when Bloody Elbow recently put together a comprehensive Top 10 ranking of the best BJJ grapplers in UFC history, 'do Bronx' only claimed the silver medal.
Oliveira's next fight has not yet been announced, although there are rumors that he could be set to welcome former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria to the 155lb scene.
'do Bronx' bounced back from a controversial loss to Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300 with a unanimous decision win over Michael Chandler in his last fight – he's currently the #2 ranked lightweight in the world.
