Jeff Novitzky Backs Australian Commission, Disputes Makhachev IV Use Accusation

Jeff Novitzky is on board with the Combat Sports Commission of Western Australia’s statement that there is no evidence of illegal IV use regarding the athletes who competed at UFC 284.

Shortly after Islam Makhachev defeated Alexander Volkanovski in the UFC 284 headliner, Volkanovski’s teammate, Dan Hooker, accused the lightweight champion of illegal IV use on social media. The allegation was later refuted by Makhachev’s manager in a statement, but the controversy continued unitl it was addressed by the Australian commission. In an interview with UFC commentator Brendan Fitzgerald, Novitzky, the UFC senior vice president of athlete health and performance, revealed that athletic commission’s rules regarding IV use differ from USADA’s. With that in mind, if the Combat Sports Commission of Western Australia says there’s no evidence of any wrongdoing, Novitzky is quite confident that Makhachev is in the clear.

“I think the Australian commission put out a statement [recently] saying there’s no credible evidence of him violating any of their rules,” Novitzky said. “I think I’ll leave it at that.”

Novitzky disussed the changes in USADA policy regarding IV use a few years back, and how that differs from how an athletic commission might develop its on policy on the matter.

“Unfortunately it’s not an easy thing to explain. It’s a little bit complicated. There’s multiple layers,” he said. “Let’s start with the UFC/USADA rules. In 2019, we manipulated our rules slightly to allow IV use if a medical situation is diagnosed by a physician and the IV was administered by a medical professional. The reason we did that is we were running into instances where fighters were out of competition — didn’t have a fight scheduled or were well out from their fight — and got the flu. [They] went to the doctor’s office, and the doctor says a bag or two of IV would benefit you. That’s why we changed the rule for a medical diagnosis and administered by a medical professional professional.

“However, when it comes to fight week especially, the rules are two-tier: There’s the UFC/USADA rule and there’s also the commission rules,” he continued. “Without exception, every single commission where we go fight, would require specific permission from that commission and their doctors specifically to allow an IV use … It’s probably likely that the commission will be pulling the fight if you have a diagnosed medical condition that requires an IV.

“Going back to Islam and Perth, the Western Australia Combat Commission…They have a specific rule that IVs are banned completely for rehydration purposes. So it wouldn’t matter the volume, it wouldn’t matter if there was a medical professional involved. Perth bans those IVs.”

Novitzky also addressed questions regarding photos of Makhachev that surfaced during fight week which showed bruising on the lightweight champion’s arm. While there was speculation that could be a result of IV use, Novitzky says that’s not the case.

“What I don’t think a lot of people realized is all non-Australian athletes that week gave a blood draw on Wednesday as part of their pre-fight physical,” he said. “I think if you look at pictures thereafter, you saw a small band-aid on the arm. As that day progressed, Wednesday and Thursday, the bruising grew.”