Hannah Rankin and Conor McGregor are not the most obvious pairing when it comes to friendship.
But Rankin’s new venture has seen her taken under the wing of the UFC superstar as she attempts the seemingly impossible; to become a two-sport world champion.
Rankin has already written herself into Scottish sporting history books.
By winning the IBO super-welterweight title in 2019, Rankin became the first Scottish woman to become a world champion boxer. She then added the WBA female super-welterweight belt to her name two years later and over the past five years, the Scot has consistently been ranked as one of the best in the world at her weight.
However, in recent months, Rankin began to get itchy feet.
She was, she realised, ready for a new challenge, and that challenge is a new sport entirely.
Rankin has moved into the world of bare knuckle fighting, and has signed for the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC), of which McGregor is part-owner.
And this is how the pair’s relationship began.
It should perhaps come as little surprise that Rankin and McGregor hit it off instantly given they’re both descendants of the Scottish outlaw and the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott’s novels, Rob Roy McGregor.
In the initial stages of their relationship, Rankin admits it felt “crazy” to be sitting alongside the MMA superstar in press conferences and hearing him singing her praises, while witnessing his level of superstardom within the world of combat sport is, she says, “mindblowing”.
“I’ve been involved in a lot of press conferences but being involved in a press conference with Conor McGregor is in a completely different league. He has serious star power,” she says.
“But he’s taken me under his wing and he and his team are really supporting me - we’ve got each other’s phone numbers so he’ll message me which is quite crazy.
“It’s been insane hearing him talking me up publicly but when I chat to him alone, with no one else around, you can just speak to him like a normal person. He’s obsessed with fighting and combat sports - he’s a real nerd about it all so actually, when we’re talking fighter to fighter, it feels really normal.”
The prospect of switching sports has been something Rankin who, as a boxer has a 13-8 record having lost three of her last four bouts, has been contemplating for some time.
She dabbled with the idea of moving into MMA, which is a combination of several styles of fighting including boxing, wrestling, jujitsu and Muay Thai but she decided the time required to an elite MMA fighter was longer than she was willing to sacrifice of her career.
So, when the offer to become a bare knuckle fighter came in, which is a sport with far more similarities to boxing, Rankin jumped at the chance – and she’s not tempering her ambitions despite the fact this is an entirely new discipline to her.
“I wanted a change so when an offer came in asking if I’d be interested in going to BKFC and I though yeah, why not?,” she says.
“I love a challenge and I like the idea of pushing myself in a completely different way.
“I had toyed with the idea of going over to MMA but bare knuckle fighting sticks with the boxing theme so when this opportunity to go into BKFC came up, it seemed ideal.
“This is the most basic form of fighting and that’s what appeals to me.
“Ultimately, the goal is to become a two-sport world champion. I’m not going into this just to have a go, I want to be great. I never do things by half and it’s the same with this.”
Rankin, as was the case as a boxer, has no intention of easing herself into her new sport.
She will make her BKFC debut today in Marbella on a card headlined by Franco Tenaglia v Tony Soto and Austin Trout v Rico Francowhile the Scot will go up against Iranian fighter, Sahel Bayat, who is an internationalist in both Muay Thai and kickboxing.
But Rankin, who fought the likes of Claressa Shields in the boxing ring, isn’t the least bit daunted about the quality of her opponent on her BKFC debut.
“Throughout my whole career, I’ve never shied away from a challenge - I’ve always wanted to go up against the best in the world so actually, I’d have been disappointed if I’d been going up against a soft touch,” says Rankin, who will fight at 145lbs this evening.
“I’m a two-time world champion myself and I’m proud of that so I want to go in against strong opposition. That gives me extra motivation knowing it’ll be a hard fight.
“I do feel some nerves but I’m glad to have them because it makes me extra focused.”
There are a number of skills that Rankin has developed throughout her boxing days that will be easily transferable to bare knuckle fighting but there are a several significant differences to which the Scot will have to adapt as well.
A women’s boxing title fight could last 10 rounds of two minutes if it goes the distance whereas in BKFC, the fights are half that length so Rankin is optimistic the base fitness she has developed as a boxer will stand her in good stead.
There have, however, been a number of tweaks in her training ahead of her BKFC debut.
“I’ve never been hit in a fight without gloves before so I just don’t know what it’ll be like,” she says.
“The chance of a knock-out is much higher in bare knuckle and also, you’re much more likely to get cut so I’ve changed my preparation to deal with that. It’s just a different style of boxing – it’s a different stance and the shots are coming at different angles so I’ll need to deal with that.”
Having dedicated nearly a decade of her life to boxing, Rankin is reluctant to definitively say she’ll never return to a boxing ring.
But it would, she says, take a particularly enticing offer to tempt her to return. For now anyway, her eyes are fully focused on the new direction her career has taken and that could well mean there’s no return to the boxing ring for Scotland’s most successful female boxer ever.
“I really don’t know if that’s me done with boxing,” she says.
“I’d never shut the door completely on anything - if an amazing offer came in to go back over to boxing, the answer would be yes but it’d have to be something particularly special. I never say never but for now, my full focus is on becoming a two-sport world champion.
“Joining BKFC has given me a new lease of life and I’m so excited to put on a performance.”
