Hannah Rankin: From Bassoon To Bare Knuckle.
It didn’t take long for the urge to fight to return for Hannah Rankin.
Just two months after telling BBC News that she would “take a little break” from fighting,
the former WBA super welterweight titleholder and multi-time world title challenger
appeared at BKFC’s groundbreaking press conference in Marbella, Spain to formally
announce her signing with the company.
Rankin is expected to make her company debut on October 12 at BKFC Marbella
Spain, a card that features another former 154-pound world champion, Austin Trout
"I'm absolutely excited to start my journey here at BKFC, obviously I'm gunning for the
top, I want to become a two-sport world champion, and I'm up there to take out the best
of the division. Let's get this party started,” said Rankin.
In a subsequent interview with Bloody Elbow, Rankin also revealed that she has deep
ties to the man who was the star of the press conference—part-owner of the company,
Conor McGregor.
“Fun fact, we’re actually from the same clan. I’m a direct descendant of Rob Roy
MacGregor, so we go all the way back. The whole Celtic connection, Irish-Scotish, we
love proper fights,” said Rankin.
The McGregor connection is another piece of one of boxing’s most fascinating fighter
backstories. Along with her accomplishments in the sport of boxing, Rankin is also a
decorated classical bassoonist, with degrees from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
and the Royal Academy of Music in London. As a child, Rankin competed in taekwondo
and karate, before turning her focus to the musical arts instead. But after her mother’s
tragic passing from cancer in her 40s, Rankin found solace in the boxing gym, which
she’s said aided with her trauma.
Rankin came to the sport in her 20s, at first passing through the UK’s white collar
boxing scene, before making a quick splash in the professional ranks. In just her
seventh pro bout, she fought Alicia Napoleon-Espinoza for a super middleweight world
title on a PBC broadcast, and in her eighth, fought Claressa Shields for the unified
middleweight title on DAZN.
After two more unsuccessful attempts at a world title against Patricia Berghult at 154
and Savannah Marshall again at 160, Rankin finally prevailed in her fifth world title fight,
capturing the WBA super welterweight title with a victory over Maria Lindberg in
November of 2021.
“Some people think being a boxer and a musician is completely crazy but for me they
perfectly make sense,” Rakin told RING Magazine's Ryan Songalia in 2018. “In music
you can’t really afford to make a mistake because you’ve got one chance to do it.
Playing the bassoon is a solo instrument; a lot of times you are playing some of the big
parts of the piece in the performance. It’s a different sort of adrenaline, you’re with a full
orchestra and you’re all trying together as one to create an amazing experience for the
audience and yourselves. As a boxer, it’s you and one other person in the ring so that’s
a different sort of adrenaline.”
In the aforementioned interview with BBC in May, Rankin floated the possibility of
returning to taekwondo or another martial art, but bare knuckle, and her old pal
McGregor, were clearly more compelling.
The signing of Rankin may have been overshadowed by McGregor’s wattage and
bombast, but the significance of her entry into the BKFC fold shouldn’t be ignored. This
is a fighter who fought for a unified world title in gloved boxing just one year ago, and
has been a significant figure in the 154 to 168-pound weight neighborhood in women’s
boxing effectively since its reemergence as a television property in the mid-to-late
2010s.
Although it puts a negative twist on the situation, the economic realities of even high-
level women’s boxers are such that dabbling in bare knuckle or other disciplines is at
best compelling and at worst necessary. Even the world’s absolute best, like Shields,
Marshall and Amanda Serrano, moonlight in MMA where they make some of their
biggest paydays. Without exact numbers available, a potentially two-minute BKFC fight
might net a fighter like Rankin the same amount, or more, than a world title fight airing
on FightZone.
However, with more migrations from recognizable fighters happening, bare knuckle can
become a viable alternative and/or supplement for many women’s boxers. BKFC has
also shown a willingness, if not propensity, to feature women’s fighters in major
slots—such as its upcoming card in Sturgis, headlined by Britain Hart and Taylor
Starling, which may well turn out to be the company’s most-attended show ever.
Names like Crystal Pittman and Jessica Borga have already been floated as potential
opponents for Rankin in the near future.
Photo courtesy: Hannah Rankin's Instagram
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