UFC 284 was an exciting card that didn’t have much controversy. However, Dan Hooker just made a big accusation against someone on the UFC 284 card.
Hooker claims that a certain competitor used an IV to rehydrate after making weight in Australia. He didn’t namedrop anyone, which makes it quite interesting. The UFC lightweight recently put out a tweet that read the following:
“Dumb c*nt thinks he can fly to Australia hire a nurse to give him an I.V and we won’t find out. Cheating dog.”
Hooker also posted several other tweets relating to the topic.
Based on the responses to the tweet, fans are speculating that the cheater in question is either Islam Makhachev or Zubaira Tukhgov. Makhachev reportedly had a lot of trouble cutting weight. And even when he did manage to do it, he looked rough.
Michael Bisping reported the following before Makhachev’s title defense:
“We got word during the live weigh-in show that Islam was really struggling and there was a chance he missed weight. That didn’t happen and the huge fight is on! But what does this mean? Volk fans will hope it means Islam may be weigh-drained, but Islam fans are going to hope it means Islam will be MASSIVE come fight time. What do you think?”
Hooker’s tweet is getting mixed responses.
Some are saying that USADA will confirm the allegations.
Previously, UFC legend BJ Penn got a 6-month suspension for his usage of an IV. IV use for rehydration has been banned for several years now.
A few say that the doctor must prescribe an IV to the competitor who then has to secure a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) from USADA. There are also those who say it has no effect on an athlete’s performance, other than nursing them back to their normal hydrated state.
However, most of the responses to Hooker’s comments question the integrity of his info. They’re accusing him of being spiteful towards Islam. They’re saying that the New Zealander is just picking on Islam because he got submitted at UFC 267.
While Islam is the main suspect here, Hooker could also be referring to his teammate Zubaira Tukhugov. He missed weight by 2.5 pounds and had to surrender 30 percent of his purse to his opponent, Joel Álvarez.
Makhachev had less time to rehydrate for UFC 284 – due to the card happening overnight in Perth so it could be streamed during UFC prime time there was roughly 33 hours to rehydrate – way under the usual 48.
Makhachev’s manager seemingly responded to the accusations without directly pointing to them. Hooker’s tweet has more than 700k views at the time of this posting.
