BKFC SPOTLIGHT: HANNAH RANKIN

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