UFC champion Islam Makhachev issues strong response to Dan Hooker's cheating accusations

Following Islam Makhachev's UFC 284 victory over Alexander Volkanovski, Dan Hooker took to Twitter to accuse the lightweight champion of cheating.

Dan is teammates with the featherweight champion. In his accusation he stated:

"Dumb c**t thinks he can fly to Australia hire a nurse to give him an I.V and we won’t find out. Cheating dog."

The No.two-ranked pound-for-pound fighter finally addressed the claims that he illegally used an IV. He claimed that the No.11-ranked lightweight must be held accountable for making such an accusation:

"You must be held accountable for such accusations."

Fighters are permitted to utilize 100 milliliters of saline over a 12 hour period. Dan Hooker's allegations suggest that Islam Makhachev went over that amount, which has been banned by the UFC since 2015.

Despite 'The Hangman' suggesting that his team has evidence of the lightweight champion cheating, nothing has been publicly presented. It remains to be seen if any punishment will be levied towards either fighter.

Check out the tweets from Dan Hooker and Islam Makhachev below:

Eugene Bareman weighs in on accusations of Islam Makhachev cheating

While Dan Hooker did not hold back in his accusation of Islam Makhachev, his teammate and the lightweight champion's UFC 284 opponent, Alexander Volkanovski, made a similar claim, however, he initially appeared to be joking. City Kickboxing head coach Eugene Bareman weighed in on the accusations levied by his fighters.

Speaking to Ariel Helwani of The MMA Hour, Bareman claimed that their team had received reliable, but not concrete, information that one of the two fight the American Kickboxing Academy that competed on the UFC 284 card had illegally used an IV. While he noted that it was unclear whether it was Makhachev or Zubaira Tukhugov, he added:

"There’s enough information there for 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... If anyone on my team was doing something illegal, then I would immediately distance the team from that person. Maybe something will come out in the wash."

While Bareman acknowledged that fighters are allowed 100 milliliters of saline over a 12 hour period, he questioned why a fighter would stop at 100 milliliters if using saline. Makhachev's co-manager Rizvan Magomedov strongly denied the accusation.

Watch Eugene Bareman's full comments below: