Charles Bosecker Q&A: The art of matchmaking and tales of a young Ryan Garcia

The job of a matchmaker is a difficult one, as Charles Bosecker of 360 Promotions explains. During his 18 years in boxing, he has worked alongside some of the sport’s leading fighters, and in a recent Q&A with BoxingScene he revealed, among other thoughts, why he knew Dmitry Bivol and Ryan Garcia would be special long before they became boxing stars.

BS: How did you get into matchmaking?

Bosecker: I got into matchmaking in 2006. One of my best friends, Paul Velarde, turned pro. Back then I was doing MMA and jiu-jitsu tournaments myself personally so, back then, I was all about MMA. I wasn’t even really about boxing to be honest, even though I did watch fights. He asked me to work his corner and hold the spit bucket, and that’s what I did.

I came from a sales background, had people skills, and he asked me if I would reach out to different promoters to help him get fights. So that’s what I did. 

From there, I met Whitfield Haydon who was matchmaking for Roy Englebrecht Promotions’ “Fight Club OC”. He asked for some help with some local opponents. So that was a soft start in that sense back then. 

I became a manager, booked fights for him on some big shows under Top Rank and Golden Boy, and then finally in 2012, I got the opportunity to be Roy Englebrecht Promotions’ head matchmaker. 

I was also advising a number of different fighters including Sebastian Fundora, I helped get Ryan Garcia started with his manager. I’ve matched so many different world champions, like Dmitrii Bivol, as they were building towards becoming champions.

I’ve matched over 1,000 fights already, and I’m 41 years old. I feel like I have a lot more to go.

BS: What’s the toughest thing about matchmaking?

Bosecker: The fans don’t know this is an extremely stressful, pressure-filled position and job. It’s really hard to get into every single aspect and detail of it but what I can say is this: Even on the smaller shows, if you don’t have the fights and if you don’t have the matches, you have no show. If anything happens, you have no show and who are they looking at? The matchmaker. If a fight is shit, who are they looking at? The matchmaker. If a fight doesn’t go according as planned, who are they looking at? The matchmaker. 

So we take responsibility and the weight of the show literally rides on my shoulder. I’ve had trainers in the past come at me aggressively wanting to fight after the show because they felt like their fighters should have won and that the judges are in favor with me and that I had something to do with it – which of course I didn’t. It takes a certain type of person to be able to withstand and to stand the pressure because there have been times, especially early on in my career, where I literally went to bed and I was like, fuck this, I’m done with this, I don’t want to do this.

BS: How hard was matching Serhii Bohachuk given his knockout ratio? 

Bosecker: Matching up an undefeated 100 per cent knockout ratio puncher is very difficult. The athletic state commissions are harsher, especially in California, because California has high standards and they want to protect and look out for fighters and, naturally, only want good matchups. Also, not many are lining up at the door to fight Bohachuk. So there’s challenges with the commissions and there’s challenges with finding the opponents who are willing to take a risky, tough fight against the big puncher. 

BS: The confidence the team has in Callum Walsh is clear from matching him so tough, so fast.

Bosecker: Part of that has to do with Dana White coming out and tooting his horn and being on TV and doing that whole thing on UFC Fight Pass. Those types of situations escalate a fighter in the sense of popularity, out of my control. It just kind of had that effect. So, when that happened, I remember when we first got Callum Walsh he only had like 2,000 social media followers and nobody really knew of him. Faster than I can think, he’s now got 200,000 followers and he is only 10-0. 

I’m glad you brought it up, because it is a little bit alarming to me. Where do we go, this is uncharted territory for me, dealing with this type of a situation and a fighter that’s been on such a quick rise with not that many professional fights. It is an interesting scenario.

BS: Who is the most talented fighter you ever matched? 

Bosecker: Dmitrii Bivol. You know when these guys have this aura? To me, when he was at Fight Club OC at the weigh-ins after I matched him and it was just him, his character had an aura about him. I knew that there was something special with him.

BS: Great fighters have a focus that’s completely different don’t they?

Bosecker: Totally different. Again, they’re just locked in. It’s just there’s something special. You just know when you’re seeing something different or special. That is the trait of the truly great fighters.

BS: What was it like matching Ryan Garcia before the fame?

Bosecker: I matched Ryan Garcia on a week’s notice the week he turned 18. I had another fighter scheduled to fight on a Steve Bash show here in LA, and the fighter pulled out. We lost the fight. His original manager, Roger Ruiz, asked me to help matchmake and work with Ryan Garcia early on, so I helped him get his fights in Mexico [in 2016]. 

Roger said, ‘Ryan’s turning 18, next month. Keep us in mind if you ever come up with something here locally.’ Well, sure enough, I had that fight fallout on a week’s notice. I put Ryan on, he had just turned 18. I found a guy from Puerto Rico on a few days’ notice to fly in and fight Ryan and I’ll never forget it.

We’re at the weigh-ins and it was one of the most memorable moments for me. Ryan is real wet behind the ears, 18 years old, and he’s at the weigh-in. He’s fighting a guy that has a few fights under his belt and he’s not afraid, not scared or anything. He comes in all cocky and confident, walks over and and flicks off Ryan. Ryan just stood there, composed, he had a little smirk on his face. 

Roger and his dad, Henry, came over to me and they’re concerned that this guy might be too much for Ryan. I was like, ‘Based on what I know of Ryan and all the other factors, this is going to be a decent fight.’ But in the back of my mind, I was like, oh shit! I wondered how Ryan would hold up. I thought back to when I was 18 and guys would come at me aggressively. But Ryan was so composed.

Sure enough, that bell rang and that dude just charged at Ryan. Ryan held his own. He stayed composed and he ultimately ended up getting a knockout. 

That showed something to me as far as Ryan being able to handle pressure and being able to handle a guy that was not afraid of him. To me, personally, after all these years of matchmaking, I pay attention to a lot of those little details, because that does show a lot and it tells you something because boxing is mainly mental. That showed me he had the mental fortitude and strength early on.