Coach Eugene Bareman says ‘you can’t reliably say that Islam cheated,’ but thinks something fishy was going on.
In the aftermath of the debated result of UFC 284’s headliner between Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski, Dan Hooker made some incendiary claims. Without naming names, “The Hangman” alleged that Makhachev used an I.V. to his advantage, a practice that’s been banned since USADA stepped in.
Dumb cunt thinks he can fly to Australia hire a nurse to give him an I.V and we won’t find out. Cheating dog.
— Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) February 13, 2023
Makhachev’s manager Rizvan Magomedov already called BS, while blasting Hooker for attention-seeking and being “salty.” This week, Hooker’s coach at City Kickboxing Eugene Bareman appeared on the MMA Hour to share more of their side of the story.
Ariel Helwani asks Eugene Bareman about the Dan Hooker allegations. #TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/0abLug2EUP
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) February 15, 2023
“We have reliable information to a point. I will half-plead the fifth. Can you half-plead the fifth? The two and a half?”
Bareman then explained a possible loophole that may permit pre-fight IV use.
“The information falls short because of 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 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.
“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 you even bother?”
Given how the information they had wasn’t as rock solid, Bareman says he advised Hooker against speaking out. But ultimately, he thinks something questionable went down.
“I advised Dan against even talking about it. Look, as you can see, that information has holes in it, that’s what I’m alluding to, but also there’s enough information there for it to be like, ‘Eeeh…’
“This is why Alex and the rest of the team are laughing because we’re like, something’s going on there, we just can’t reliably say what it is.
“It’s frustrating because the whole sport should be played on an even playing field. Then again, you can’t reliably say that Islam cheated, so I wouldn’t go out there and say that in the manner that Dan did.
“That’s just—I don’t think you can reliably say that. But something was going on there.”
The 31-year-old Makhachev (24-1) ended up with the unanimous decision win as he extended his UFC win streak to 12.