LUSS boxer Hannah Rankin is heading Stateside for her first tilt at a world championship title.

The former Hermitage Academy pupil will challenge Alicia Napoleon next month for the WBA super-middleweight championship.

The fight will take place at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York on Saturday, August 4.

It’ll be the 27-year-old’s toughest challenge yet after she turned pro last year, and follows her WBC silver super-middleweight triumph against Finland’s Sanna Turunen in Paisley in June.

Speaking on PepTalkUK’s YouTube channel following Monday’s announcement, Rankin said: “We did say we’d fight anyone in America, so we got the call, and I said yes, I’ll take the fight.

“I’m expecting to go out there and showcase all my skills. I’m looking forward to it, and obviously going out there to win it.

“Anyone Scottish in New York who wants to come and watch a great fight, come down and support me.

“Obviously I want to be Scotland’s first female to win a world title in boxing so any support would be amazing.”

Rankin’s coach, Noel Callan, added: “We always said that we’d fight anybody, anywhere, any time. They offered the challenge – we accepted.”

News of the US fight was announced shortly after Rankin returned from a two-week training camp in the Ukranian capital, Kiev, with Norwegian world champion Cecilia Brækhus.

Callan added: “It was great. [Cecilia] is as good as everybody says she is. I think Hannah’s technical ability has improved in the last two weeks.”