Eugene Bareman coy on IV drip use allegations against Islam Makhachev, claims ‘Something is going on’
City Kickboxing head coach, Eugene Bareman has addressed accusations from his student, Dan Hooker, who alleges UFC 284 headliner, Islam Makhachev used an IV drip to rehydrate ahead of his main event clash with teammate, Alexander Volknanovski, however, claimed that “something” was going on with the team, despite not having concrete evidence.
Headlining UFC 284 last weekend against undisputed featherweight champion, Volkanovski, American Kickboxing Academy staple, Islam Makhachev managed to land a unanimous decision victory over the Australian, in a hard-fought back-and-forth over the course of five rounds.
However, in the aftermath of his victory, Islam Makhachev was hit with accusations of pre-fight cheating from Volkanovski’s teammate, Hooker, who claimed the Russian had hired a nurse to administer an intravenous drip to him following Friday’s weigh-ins.
In a bid to attempt to clarify the rules regarding the use of IV drips, former USADA leader, Jeff Novitsky claimed that fighters may utilized a maximum of 100ml of saline per 12 hour period, once deemed required and administered by a licensed physician.
Eugene Bareman remains coy on IV use allegations brought against Islam Makhachev
And in a bid to address the accusations brought against Islam Makhachev, head coach, Bareman admitted that while they were lacking concrete evidence pertaining to any mishap, “something” had been going on.
“We have reliable information to a point,” Eugene Bareman told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I will half plead the fifth. Can you half-plead the fifth? The two and a half? The information falls short because for several reasons, and one of them is that you can actually take an IV before a fight. It just has to be 100 ml 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, 100 ml, and then stop.”
“And the fact that from that team there were there were two fighters from that same team and the information can’t reliably tell us yet which fighter illegally hydrated or whether they went over 100 ml,” Bareman explained. “But I don’t know, no information can tell us without a doubt that someone in their team used an IV badge to rehydrate, which is not illegal if you used 100 ml. You’ve just got to ask yourself if it’s only 100 ml you’ve got to use for 12 hours, why would would you even bother?”
Following Hooker’s claims, Islam Makhachev’s manager and representative, Rizvan Magomedov rubbished the accusations, labelling them as “complete bullsh*t”.
