GUEST COLUMN
It’s tough for female boxers to get the recognition but things are improving
Rankin on female boxing’s obstacles
I IHAD a great fight on June 16, beating Sanna Turrunen in Paisley, and winning the WBC Silver female middleweight title which was really exciting. Sanna was an undefeated fighter and I stepped up to middleweight as I had a lastminute dropout for the same title at super-welterweight. It was a 10-round war, and I won every round by unanimous decision, her eye cut open I think in the second, but she’s a warrior and it went the distance. The crowd loved it which was great.
It was the second camp I’d done as I was meant to be fighting for the Commonwealth super-welterweight title on the April 7 and that fell through the week before due to my opponent having visa issues. I was ready to fight it didn’t matter what it was for.
The withdrawals I had were disappointing especially the Commonwealth title, because I was going to be the first UK female to fight for one and I had a lot of great publicity at home in Scotland and down in London. It’s disappointing when all your friends and family are available to come to your fight and support you, then it falls through in the last week.
It’s difficult to find opponents in the UK as we have such a strict system with the BBBOFC, which I understand, and you can’t just have people stepping through the weight classes like you do abroad. It’s difficult to find boxers that pass all the criteria and are appropriate for the level you’re at. It does mean when you go into a fight they are all competitive as all the girls are looking to get somewhere, and female boxing is exciting because of this.
It’s an amazing feeling winning the title. I made a little bit of history as I’m the first female professional Scottish boxer to fight for and win a title. That was amazing and to have done it at home in Scotland was a great feeling. My dad was there too and I feel really proud to have done that. The team and I have worked hard to get ourselves in this position, I couldn’t be happier.
It’s tougher for female professional boxers to get the recognition that we deserve, but it’s improving.
When Katie Taylor signed for Eddie Hearn it was the beginning of a big turnaround for female boxing in the UK. We’re starting to get more recognition through being on TV, the sport is getting showcased to the whole of the UK now and people are beginning to take note of female boxing. It’s still difficult as there’s not many of us, we don’t have things like Southern Area titles and there’s no British title yet. To fans it seems strange that our first serious title is the Commonwealth or European titles. It means you can just go from ‘learning’ straight into position for these titles and that’s quite hard work. Granted, it’s also hard as the boys have to go through so many different titles to get to that stage. Hopefully soon we’ll get British Titles to fight for and that would be amazing, it’s changing for the better and I’m happy about that.
Last Saturday I watched Clarressa Shields become a two-weight champion by beating Hannah Gabriels for the IBF and WBA female middleweight titles in Detroit. I thought it was an amazing fight and with Christina Hammer retaining the other two middleweight belts on the same Showcase broadcast. Topping the bill on a TV show is a massive step forward for professional female boxing. Hopefully more of these fights will happen, we’ve got the massive superfight between these two in the Autumn which will be huge and a great showcase for everybody trying to get into the sport. It’s going to be brilliant and I think its going to really change things. I’m looking forward to watching it as I’m a big supporter of the fight and can’t wait for it to happen.