Kyle Boehm accuses DDS, New Wave of fixing matches
On Sunday, elite no-gi black belt competitor Kyle Boehm made a post on Instagram accusing former members of the Danaher Death Squad (DDS) and current members of New Wave Jiu-Jitsu of participating in “fake” or fixed matches.
In the now-deleted post, the 10th Planet black belt shows a screenshot of a conversation he had with fellow BJJ competitor Matthew Kaplan. In the conversation, Kaplan stated that he witnessed former DDS athletes Eddie Cummings and Garry Tonon plan a fake match at EBI 3 in 2015.
Additionally, Boehm alleged that Tonon and Gordon Ryan engaged in a fixed match in the quarterfinals of the absolute division at the 2019 ADCC World Championships.
The post was made shortly before EBI 20 took place in El Paso, TX. Boehm competed in that tournament, losing in the final to Nick Rodriguez. Also competing were New Wave Jiu-Jitsu representatives Giancarlo Bodoni and Luke Griffith, both coached by former DDS head coach John Danaher, and both current teammates of Tonon and Ryan.
According to Boehm, if Bodoni and Griffith both reached the semifinals of EBI 20, they were planning a fixed match. Bodoni won his first-round match, but withdrew from the competition, citing a rib injury. Griffith fell in the quarterfinals to Rodriguez.
Below is the caption of Boehm’s now deleted post.
“To whom it may concern, two fo the athletes in Today’s EBI absolute tournament are planning on doing a fake match. These athletes are Luke Griffith and Giancarlo Bodoni who are coached by John danaher. If they both make it to the semifinals the match will be faked. This same team has done this multiple times including in this tournament at EBI 3. I hope that something can be done to prevent this because they will be stealing money from the other athletes. @hingerbjj was robbed of a potential win and a lot of money at EBI 3 by the fake match mentioned above. @marcusbuchecha was robbed of a lot of money and a win in the absolute at adcc by the fake match shown in the video above. It’s absurd that this is allowed to continue in a sport on the cusp of mainstream professionalism which is being held back by these types of unscrupulous tactics.”
For his part, Ryan responded to the accusations, calling them “bs” in an Instagram post.
