Laura Sanko is lashing out at critics who say she only has her job at UFC because of her looks.

Sanko, a reporter, host and analyst for UFC, appeared on Blockasset’s “BLOCK Party” podcast earlier this week.

“There is a whole contingent of people out there that think I got this job in some untoward and scandalous way,” Sanko said, as documented by MMA Junkie. “I can assure you that’s not how it happened.”

The 39-year-old Sanko fought as an amateur from 2010-12, and then won a professional fight at Invicta FC 4 in 2013. She began working in broadcasting, and ascended to the point where last year she was a color commentator for Dana White’s Contender Series.

“It’s a weird thing because on one hand, people will be like, ‘She only has this job because she looks a certain way.’ And then the next comment will be, ‘Oh, she looks a certain way, so there’s no way she could possibly have anything intelligent to say,’” Sanko said on the podcast. “Like anything, I’m learning to deal with it because it’s certainly something that’s ramped up more as the UFC has started to put me in these positions to have opinions.

“But it helps that the people who sit next to me – the Anthony Smiths of the world, the Rashad Evans’s of the world, the Michael Bispings, the Paul Felders, the Daniel Cormiers – that I think people can sense they have a certain amount of respect for me and therefore the fans should, as well. I really owe a lot to my male co-workers who are making a spot for me at the table.”

She spoke about being referred to as a “trail blazer.”

“Every time someone says that word to me, it makes me want to tear up honestly,” Sanko said. “But then it also makes me … I don’t yet feel worthy of that. I want to be worthy of that. I do want to be that. I guess if I really sit back and go through my DMs, at some point I’m going to have to admit that there is an element of that. It’s just hard for me to use that word for myself.”