UFC 284 had an unusually short span of time between the weigh ins and the event due to the fact event was being held in Australia – and live streamed during US prime time.
Several of the competitors had a lot of issues making weight – including Team Dagestan’s Islam Makhachev and Zubaira Tukhugov. Makhachev has had trouble cutting weight in the past and usually looks massive.
UFC Australia was different. Makhachev seemed emaciated and was feeble even on the night of.
But UFC 284 came and went, Islam Makhachev edged out a victory after 5 round war in which both Volkanovski and Makhachev came off remarkably well.
After all was said and done, New Zealand’s very own, Dan Hooker couldn’t keep biting his tongue and went on twitter to air out something he’d heard. Apparently someone was using an IV to rehydrate.
IV usage has been banned by USADA for this purpose as far back as 2019 because that method allows for a much quicker bounce back and encourages extreme dehydration.
Hooker took to twitter to announce:
Commenters speculated that he was talking about Makhachev from the get go but there were no direct confirmations.
Makhachev’s manager went so far as to indirectly answer opting to call out Hooker for his racist use of ‘dog’.
And after 3 hours of silence – confirmation came.
Dan Hooker famously lost to Makhachev by 1st round submission back at UFC 267. Makhachev even addressed the problematic weight cut during the presser: