Defeating Alexander Volkanovski was no easy feat for Islam Makhachev. However, is it even more difficult for him to defeat the IV use accusations? The current lightweight champion appeared in an interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto to speak about several things ahead of UFC 294. The question about the accusations had to come up for obvious reasons.
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The incident drags itself to 2023 like a weight tied to Makhachev’s foot. The fighter is due to appear in his rematch against Charles Oliveira but the tainted issue still comes up from time to time. The truth is, that doping is still a controversial topic with loopholes in the way testing is done. Here is the entire ordeal.
Islam Makhachev addresses the IV accusations
When he had to show up to a fight against the reigning featherweight champ in February this year, Islam Makhachev had to lose weight. The Dagestani fighter came down to 155 pounds to make the fight fair between him and ‘The Great’. However, rumors of him abusing an IV soon followed in Perth, Australia after Makhachev won the fight via decision.
“The official commission from Australia took the blood from every fighters in the fight hotel. They bring some people take their blood,” explained Makhachev. “I told them hey guys I want to finish this.”
The fighter explained how he told everyone to take whatever actions they could to prove their claims. If Makhachev used an IV, he would have needed a professional to help him out. This meant that a nurse or a doctor would have had to visit him in his room at his hotel.
Who accused Makhachev and why?
The best guess here is that the fighter was accused of drug abuse because the win did not go to a favored fighter. The accusations infamously started with Dan Hooker, a fellow MMA fighter in the lightweight division who was by the ringside in Perth. Hooker is a friend of Volkanovski and was there to show his support. After the fight was over, he alleged that Makhachev had used an IV.
This may have been the case because the fighter looked like he was in good shape after the fight. However, there is no substantial evidence to prove that the fighter cheated. His blood reports were normal and he secured the win. So were the dirty allegations just an outcome of a loss for Volkanovski? It looks like we’ll just about never find out since no one checked the security footage. Do you think Makhachev was doping? What do you make of his retort to the accusations? Let us know in the comments section below.
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