From WBC:
Rankin and Berghult ready to make history in Malta
This evening Scottish heroine Hannah Rankin (8-3, 1 KO) will take on unbeaten Swedish princess Patricia Berghult (13-0, 3 KOs) for the WBC female interim World Super welterweight Championship, and it`ll be the first ever WBC World title fight held in Malta…a jewel set in the Mediterranean Sea.
In recent years Malta has become an epicenter of the online gaming industry so the fight will be held as opening event of the SIGMA, the biggest epicenter for online gaming with more than 12,000 participants from all over the world.
29-year-old Rankin, a direct descendant of Scotland’s national hero Rob Roy, is a former WBC Silver Middleweight Champion and went the distance with World Middleweight Champion Claressa Shields one year ago. She had no problem making the Super welterweight limit, weighing in at 69.5 kg (153 lbs).
For 25-year-old Berghult this is the first major title fight but she is confident to be ready for the big stage and wants to take the magnificent Green and Gold Belt home to Sweden. She easily made the limit, weighing in at 68.4 kg (151 lbs).
The fight has been approved for the interim World title because the World Super welterweight Championship fight between Claressa Shields and Ivana Habazin which was originally scheduled for October 5th had to be postponed after an incident during the weigh-in. The fight has been rescheduled for January 10th, in the meantime the interim World Championship has been approved to keep the division busy. The winners of the two fights will collide in 2020 – although longtime WBC World Super welterweight Champion Mikaela Lauren has also expressed her interest in fighting the winner of Rankin vs. Berghult. At age 43, Lauren had already announced her retirement, but will have a comeback fight in December and has publicly stated that she will watch the interim title fight closely.