I’m not sure it happens often, maybe once or twice while covering a sport with such fine margins and struggle for success, but a fighter that has worked with Boxing Social since her early days in a Gym Box general fitness complex – struggling to be taken seriously as a prospect fighting on hotel shows or early on small hall cards – is headlining her country’s largest boxing venue as a reigning, defending world champion.
As Hannah Rankin (11-5, 2KOs), the WBA and IBO super-welterweight champion, returns to her base in London after a brief visit North to announce her maiden defence in Glasgow’s SSE Hydro Arena, she reflects on moments that now feel a lifetime away…
She talks that visit to Gym Boxin Farringdon, when she was working with Noel Callan and filming ‘call out interviews’ naming Claressa Shields as a desired opponent, a tremendous fighter and undisputed champion she now calls a friend after the pair batted in the United States. Shields proved too skilled and too seasoned; Rankin proved undeterred. There was the sit down in Glasgow’s Crowne Plaza hotel as Rankin and her long-time trainer and confidante, Noel Callan, trained for her fight with Savannah Marshall – a defeat, and a rare stoppage defeat at that.
What about my own return taxi to Paisley’s Lagoon Centre, I recalled, just in time for Rankin to ring walk, and to lift her IBO world title the first time, beating Sarah French in an unexpectedly tough scrap. The beginning of a short reign as champion that was never fully recognised, holding a belt that’s often overlooked and disrespected. There was a sense of pride that night, watching Rankin deliver what she’d promised years prior.
We’re here now, though. And Glasgow’s SSE Hydro is the venue in which Rankin defends her newly acquired WBA – and regained IBO – world title, fighting Alejandra Ayala, a durable Mexican with a point to prove. The photo shoot from today’s announcement and press conference showed Rankin, now with much shorter, business-like hair, looking and posing comfortably, hoisting her belts in front of the enormous, Alien transport-type venue. Callan, too, was at peace. They knew – and they told me time and time again – that this would happen. They spoke, and while at times I listened out of loyalty and supported as a friend, it was hard to predict the champion’s success.
“I was speaking to Dennis [Hobson] and Sam [Kynoch],” Rankin explained, “And the whole team were saying, ‘We want to do your first event in Scotland in front of a big home crowd,’ and I was like, ‘I would love the opportunity. If that can happen, that would be amazing.’ When they got me the opportunity for the world title, they’ve managed to achieve this one, too. Originally, it was going to be at the Braehead Arena, which I was actually really excited about as well because obviously some of the best Scottish boxers have boxed there before and they haven’t had boxing for a little while. So, it would’ve been nice to go back there, and also be the first female to headline there.”
“However, a better opportunity came up and the opportunity to fight in the Hydro has come up and madly, when I was doing the commentary for Sky Sports, I said, ‘I would love to…’ Josh was fighting and I was like, ‘Oh my God, one day I would love the opportunity to fight here.’ I think it’s on any Scottish boxer’s bucket list to be on this card at the Hydro. And then they came back and said, ‘Yeah, we’d love to move the fight. It’s going to be two weeks later, so don’t be too mad, but in a better venue, so we thought it would balance out and you wouldn’t be too cross.’ So, to actually fight a Mexican, I’ve been wanting to tick that off the bucket list too. People often call me a Scottish Mexican, so I’ve always wanted to fight one myself, you know.”
A big unification bout with Liverpool’s Natasha Jonas has been mooted since the latter captured the WBO world title, knocking Rankin’s former sparring partner Chris Namus from pillar to post in Manchester. For now, the Luss fighter is relishing world champion status, and is focused solely on Ayala. That doesn’t mean she’s ignoring or cowering from Jonas, that’s just not how Rankin operates. Win or lose, she fights the best. Nobody expected much of the classically trained musician, turned to boxing for fitness and originally embarking on what should have been a brief White Collar career. Things change – especially in this sport of ours.
“I used to actually work on the 24-man bars in the SECC (the city’s biggest venue before the Hydro was built); I worked all the big, live concerts. It was such a rubbish job. It was always totally drunk crowds, trying to get them the drinks and never quick enough. And then it was just, you finished stinking of beer, and you never got to see the main events. And I was laughing because obviously in my boxing career, things just steadily improved as I’ve gone through, like the venues… I started [fighting] in a Southend nightclub. I finally got to box at the Crowne Plaza for the first time when I boxed at home in Scotland and now, around the corner, obviously it’s the Hydro and I’m going to be there.”
She will be there; she will be headlining. It was Hannah Rankin’s name at the top of the poster; it was the farmer’s girl sitting front and centre of Fightzone’s press conference. She has made it. And considering her journey thus far, and the time spent understanding the intricacies of professional boxing, considering the sacrifice, and picking herself back up again after suffering five defeats, it is quite remarkable.
You can’t pick friends in the sport of boxing because fights are often over before they’ve even begun, and fighters take an age to face stiff opponents. Rankin is the exception. It isn’t about backing a boxer; it’s about supporting a good person that deserves everything that’s playing out in front of you. Guilty as charged, I guess.