Hannah Rankin
6-3-0 (1 KO)
Age: 28
Professional debut: 20th May 2017
Born: Luss, Scotland, UK
Fights out of: UK
Ring Style: Orthodox, tight guard, aggressive attacking style, good infighting
Belts won: WBC Silver Middleweight
By Suzy Smith,
Hannah has only been professional for 2 years, yet in this short time she has made a real impact in the boxing world.
Rankin had a brief amateur career before embarking on her professional career with trainer Noel Callan. Noel has been with Hannah from the start, taking her from complete beginner to a world class boxer and their close relationship shows.
Like most female boxers, Hannah has another career – she is a professional classical bassoonist, currently playing in a quintet.
Hannah grew up on a sheep farm, near Luss, Scotland. She fell in love with the Bassoon and music at 15, studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, travelled the World with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and has done a masters at the Royal Academy of Music, in London.
She did taekwondo as a child, then Thai boxing and finally got into boxing, when in London. Initially it was for fitness via white-collar boxing, but she soon fell in love with it and turned professional.
Debuting as a Super-Welterweight, Hannah won her first two fights but then experienced her first loss on 21st October 2017 against Joanna Ekedahl, by SD. Taking this loss in her stride, Hannah won two more fights at Super-Welterweight and then went up in weight to fight for the vacant WBC Silver Middleweight title on 16th June 2018. Hannah won a UD against Sanna Turunen, 4-0-1.
Not content to sit back with easy fights, having had a taste for winning titles, Hannah stepped up in weight again and travelled to America to take on the WBA World Super Middleweight Champion, Alicia Napoleon who was 9-1-0. Despite her limited fight experience, Hannah went the distance, losing by UD. However, with this fight, Hannah proved she had the heart of a fighter and was not scared to take on the top fighters.
Again, surprising many, Hannah changed weights to take on the IBF and WBA World Middleweight Champion, Claressa Shields, who is now the P4P top female boxer. The fight was also for the vacant WBC World Middleweight title that was stripped from Christina Hammer.
Claressa came into the fight with a 6-0-0 record. Hannah took Claressa the full 10 rounds and lost to Claressa by UD. The Scotswoman fought really well on the inside, and kept coming forward. She impressed many observers, showing plenty of grit and heart.
Following the two losses Hannah returned to Super-Welterweight to take on Eva Bajic (14-15-0), winning on points.
Not one to sit back, Hannah has her eyes set on making history in her next fight, on June 15th, In Glasgow, hoping to become the first Scottish woman to win a professional boxing world title belt. She then plans on getting married next year to her fiancé Mike.
Sarah Curran debuted in 2016 and at age 26, this fight will be Curran’s biggest to date. Sarah will be a little unknown coming into the fight, as she has not really stepped up a level since she started. How she will respond to Hannah will be interesting. Hannah has put in the hard graft, going out to Poland to spar, and New York to spar previous opponent Alicia Napoleon. Together with Hannah’s record and experience, it seems that she should dominate Sarah Curran in this fight and come away with the belt.
Should Hannah win she will most likely enter the Linealboxingchampion.com Super-Welterweight top 5. From there Hannah has tough challenges to gain extra belts. The prestigious Lineal title – which identifies the true traditional World Champion of a division - is currently vacant.
One thing is for sure, Hannah has the bravery and heart to face any opponent in her way.
Catch the fight live on BBC Scotland on Saturday night. Hannah will be the first UK female to headline a UK televised boxing event.