Hooker refuses to be silent regarding Islam Makhachev’s possible I.V. use leading into a fight against his teammate Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284.
Islam Makhachev’s big win over Alexander Volkanovski hasn’t gained the Dagestani fighter the respect he’d hoped it would following UFC 284. Not only did fans question why he had so much trouble against a featherweight fighter, the UFC ranking board didn’t deem the win worthy of placing Makhachev above Volkanovski in the official pound-for-pound rankings.
And then there’s Dan Hooker’s accusations that Makhachev used an illegal I.V. to re-hydrate after a hard weight cut.
The jury is still out on whether Makhachev did use an I.V., but it certainly was interesting watching the UFC and UFC-connected press outlets clarify how I.V. use isn’t necessarily illegal under USADA rules. They are still illegal under Western Australia commission rules, but the commission has stated they have no evidence that Makhachev used an I.V., so … that’s where we’re at now.
As for Dan Hooker, he’s anticipating some consequences for his actions. Both in the form of angry Caucasus fighters confronting him in the future, and the UFC ‘punishing’ him for speaking out.
“What I’ve learned from this whole situation is: the UFC don’t care and USADA don’t care,” Hooker said in an interview with The AllStar. “So if UFC don’t care and USADA don’t care, as long as your local commission doesn’t care too, I.V.s are legal. That’s what I’ve learned from this whole situation. I thought they were illegal. I thought, it was my opinion and the fans’ opinion that you weren’t allowed to do it. But from USADA’s press release and from any action that we’ve heard from the UFC, they don’t care about it.”
“Yeah, that’s a message out to fighters: so long as the local commission doesn’t care too, I.V.s are legal. And it’s pretty hard for a local commission to … what are they gonna do, test you for too much saline in your blood? There’s no test for it. That’s why USADA kicked it down the road, because you can’t test for it.”
The AllStar reporter John Hyon Ko mentioned that Alexander Volkanovski’s head coach Joe Lopez was pretty upset about the situation behind the scenes.
“Why do you think I’m the guy that come out and said something? I don’t care,” Hooker said. “You don’t think that I know there are gonna be consequences for what I said? You don’t think I’m gonna be punished for what I said? I just don’t care. Am I gonna have some shake-ups or some Dagestanis over the next couple of years in the lobby of UFC events? I’m sure I will. I’m sure I will. Do I care about confrontations with other teams? Not at all. Not a single bit.”
“Do I think that the UFC is gonna punish me in some way?” he continued. “Yeah, I’m sure they will. I’m sure they’ll give me tough match-ups. Whoop-dee-doo. Ask the last 10 blokes I fought, they’re all tough matchups. So bring it on. You wanna give me tough match-ups? Give me tough match-ups. That’s what I’m here for, I’m not here for easy fights I’m here for tough fights.”
“I’m not gonna blatantly see one of my teammates cheated out of a world title and not say anything.”
To be clear, Hooker is not backing down from his accusation that Islam Makhachev is a cheat, and the cheating made the difference between Volkanovski winning and losing.
“For that guy to come down here to Australia and steal that moment from Alex? I couldn’t bite my tongue and I couldn’t sit on my hands, because that pissed me off,” Hooker said. “It pissed me off that he still has that title because he’s a cheat. He cheated Alex out of that title and he knows it. Those tweets were directed at one man, those tweets weren’t directed at his management, weren’t directed at anyone except that one man.”
“And for him to not be asked about it by any journalist, to not be pursued by any MMA media for comment by any MMA media is a real smudge on the face. For him to sit in a media scrum and not be asked about it? I feel like you’re a coward. If you sit there and don’t ask about it, you’re a coward. And for me to show my hand when he hasn’t even been asked to respond to these accusations? I feel like that’s a joke.”
It doesn’t sound like this story is going to die so long as Dan Hooker is there to keep pushing it ahead.
“Will I show this information? I’m sure I will, when push comes to shove,” he declared. “But he has to answer for it first. Deny it! I dare you to deny it, then I will discredit you.”