It looks like Chael Sonnen knows something we don’t.
In the aftermath of UFC 284, Dan Hooker alleged that UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev had cheated by using an I.V. to rehydrate before his fight with Alexander Volkanovski… Makhachev would deny all of these allegations.
‘I’m Not Gonna Answer’
The former UFC title challenger has previously questioned the validity of these cheating accusations by Hooker, but it seems as though Sonnen now has new knowledge when it comes to the situation.
“Well… I’m not gonna answer,” Sonnen said, when asked if Makhachev used an I.V. on The MMA Hour.
Chael knows if Islam used IV… 🤔👀@ChaelSonnen / @arielhelwani pic.twitter.com/4a76SvYusy
— No Context Ariel Helwani (@NoContextAriel) February 28, 2023
Responding to Ariel Helwani, Sonnen confirmed he knew the answer to the question and was ‘pleading the fifth’ (which is no person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime).
“That’s annoying by me,” Sonnen added. “That’s annoying what I just did… I’ll just share with you, whoever the big mouth nurse is that thinks like this is gonna be her 15 minutes of fame, she’s a scumbag. She never should have opened her mouth. If she comes into somebody’s room and she takes a fee and she’s doing something that’s a medical procedure that she deems is appropriate and necessary, and then later finds out that it’s [illegal], and then starts speaking up to Dan Hooker and the gang, she’s no good.”
Sonnen Believes USADA Made A Colossal Mistake
While the UFC’s anti-doping partner USADA has definitely made the sport a lot cleaner, Sonnen thinks they shot themselves in the foot with one decision. And that decision was to ban the use of I.V’s.
Sonnen believes fighters who were on PED’s didn’t realize they could ‘flush’ it out of their system with an I.V. until USADA flagged it down.
“You don’t hear of it very much,” Sonnen said, when asked about current fighters testing positive for PED’s now. “I tell you, it was [a] very small [percentage]. Like right when USADA stepped in… watching TV, you watched the incredible shrinking man. We had champions that have never won another fight since USADA stepped in. Several champions– people can go do their own research. We had people that were leaving divisions and becoming shrinking men.
“But then that stopped and they’re starting to come back and your eyes are starting to tell you. USADA made a colossal mistake by telling people that they can’t use the I.V. Nobody understood fully that you could flush peds if you use an I.V. until USADA came out and said, ‘no more I.V’s’. That was the light that flipped on in everybody going, ‘okay, this is how you beat ’em’. It was a big miss by USADA.”
