The day after UFC 284 concluded, Alexander Volkanovski’s training partner, Dan Hooker, accused lightweight champion Islam Makhachev of intravenous (IV) drop usage to rehydrate following the weigh-in.
“Dumb c**t thinks he can fly to Australia hire a nurse to give him an I.V and we won’t find out. Cheating dog,” Hooker tweeted before naming Islam Makhachev as his target.
Makhachev’s co-manager Rizvan Magomedov would issue a response on Twitter where he denied the allegation.
“Jealous losers spreading lies, eventually this is all you can do.”
Since then, discussion on the rules around intravenous use has been a hot topic with the UFC coming out to remind fighters about the use of IV.
CKB Kickboxing coach Eugene Bareman appeared on The MMA Hour and had his own interpretation of the rules.
“We have reliable information to a point. The information falls short for several reasons, and one of them is that you can actually take an IV before a fight,” Bareman said.
“It just has to be 100ml of saline every 12 hours, in a 12-hour block. So what it has to come down to is whether you believe that people are going to take this saline, 100ml, and stop.”
Under 5.3 of the Combat Sports Commission of Western Australia Code of Conduct, it states the following:
5.3 The Commission also prohibits the use of intravenous therapies which are used for aiding
rehydration from excessive and deliberate dehydration.
Fight News Australia reached out to the Combat Sports Commission of Western Australia to question if there was an investigation into the claims made originally by Hooker. This is the response we were provided where they confirmed both that any intravenous usage is banned and that no evidence nor a complaint has been presented to them thus far.
The Combat Sport Commission of Western Australia does not condone any form of cheating within the Combat Sports Industry. The Commission has clear codes and policies that align with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and bans the misuse of intravenous drips. The Commission has no conclusive evidence that any athlete at the UFC 284 event held at RAC Arena has breached WADA or the Commission’s policies.
The Commission has not received a complaint relating to any athlete at the UFC 284 event held at RAC Arena. The Commission invites anyone with any relevant information to contact us by emailing CombatSport@dlgsc.wa.gov.au.
Fight News Australia also clarified, per the code of conduct, if there was a secondary weigh-in hours before the event commences. The commission confirmed that this was undertaken however information for the secondary weigh-in remains confidential.
The commission referred to further information bout legislation, guidelines, and the code of conduct via their website. https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/sport-and-recreation/combat-sports-commission
