Reigning UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, who successfully defended his title against Alexander Volkanovski, has responded to accusations by the Australian team that he violated the organization’s anti-doping rules by using saline drips after a weight race.
“I don’t even want to comment on it,” the Russian said at an impromptu press conference at the Makhachkala airport. “Because we have experts who work with the UFC – this is USADA, and I was checked four times before the fight, after the fight. Someone posted a photo that I had bruises on my veins, but in Australia they still had their own commission that took blood during the week of the fight, on Wednesday, and the photos began to be taken from Thursday, when we had a photo shoot. Someone started to inflate this topic, but there was nothing from the UFC or USADA.
A few days earlier, Volkanovski’s teammate, Dan Hooker, said that the Russian was a fraudster because he used saline drips to recover from the weight race, which have been banned by the US Anti-Doping Agency since 2015. At the same time, the New Zealander mentioned a certain Australian nurse who was allegedly hired and helped carry out the procedure. Later, these accusations were repeated by Volkanovski himself, thereby making it clear that Hooker spoke on behalf of the team.
The lightweight bout between Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski, who headlined UFC 284 in Perth over the weekend, went the distance and ended in a unanimous decision victory for the Russian.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/30789-islam-makhachev-otvetil-na-obvineniya-komandy-aleksa-volkanovski.html?rand=19907
