THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE BOXER: Rankin, with trainer Noel Callan on left of shot, before her high-proile bout with Shields
Photo: ED MULHOLLAND/MATCHROOM
IT’S Hannah Rankin’s ninth day in New York. She sits in a café with the remnants of a black eye that she picked up in nearby Gleasons’ Gym while preparing for her upcoming bout with Sarah Curran. She has funded this 10-day trip herself, breaking into her savings so she can sample some of the finest female punches the city has to offer.
Thousands of miles away is Rankin’s home of Glasgow, where the bout against Curran will take place. The darkest corners of that city can be likened to the grey streets that sit beneath the entrance to Brooklyn Bridge outside, particularly on this day when pouring rain smudges views of the New York skyline. But everything else is a world away from her roots.