How Top Rank's Melissa Takimoglu went from the UK garage scene to looking after Tyson Fury

Top Rank’s head of UK Media Relations Melissa Takimoglu will be sat ringside for Tyson Fury’s WBC world heavyweight title clash with Dillian Whyte.

But unlike the vast majority of other people who will also be in attendance tonight, the PR representative won’t be sat there twiddling her thumbs.

If you’ve ever seen Takimoglu on fight night, the first thing that you’ll notice is that she never sits still – she’s always doing something.

Whether that be shepherding one of her fighters through a throng of media or dealing with a last-minute request from a boxing reporter trying to push their luck, Takimoglu – or ‘Mel’ as she is known in the industry – takes great pride in her work.

After all, it’s why she is where she is today.

Takimoglu cut her teeth representing a number of different clients in the UK garage scene before making the transition to sport.

The PR guru has worked with a host of A-listers during her career but perhaps arguably none more so famous than the Gypsy King himself.

It’s not always easy dealing with Fury but Takimoglu has been one of the very few to gain his trust over the years.

So much so that he once walked barefoot with her to stop her feet from hurting after his trilogy fight with Deontay Wilder.

“We were walking to the press conference, Frank Warren and everyone else was behind us, and I hate having the attention on me like I’m holding things up,” Takimoglu told GiveMeSport.

“As a woman in boxing, you don’t want to be the problem because they’ll be straight away like ‘Oh it’s because it’s a woman’.

“We were in Vegas, you could see I was limping, I was genuinely limping.

“I was trying to hide the pain in my feet but Tyson stopped me.

“He goes, ‘Stop, take your shoes off’.

“It’s on camera, you