Joe Rogan is indeed one of the biggest supporters of the Dagestani team. The UFC color commentator has praised and hyped up Khabib Nurmagomedov’s team on multiple occasions. However, there was a time when Rogan could not believe what he heard about the team. Yes, it was all about Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev’s PED allegations. 

Back while filming episode #1946 in February last year, Rogan and his guest, Ari Shaffir, discussed the Dagestani team’s PED allegation. But when Bobby Green made speculation, the world of mixed martial arts gave credit to Rogan’s ideas. 

Joe Rogan and Bobby Green on the Dagestani team’s PED allegation

On episode #137 of the JRE MMA Show, the famed UFC commentator and podcaster invited Jorge Masvidal to the studio for a talk. Therein, the duo conversed about a lot of things, but one of the topics was the difficulties in testing fighters who trained and lived in inaccessible places. The needles were pointing towards Team Khabib and the Dagestani fighters. 

Rogan said, “Oh yeah, they’re not traveling to the mountains of Dagestan to give people pi** test.” He pointed out that it was indeed impossible for the officials at the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) to travel up to the mountains in Dagestan to test the athletes. But Rogan was not the only one with similar claims. Makhachev’s former opponent, Bobby Green, has set the claims in concrete. Surprisingly, he had analogous thoughts to that of Rogan.

In an appearance on the JAXXON podcast last year, Green talked about USADA’s troubles with the Dagestani fighters. He seemed to believe that the anti-doping agency’s trials wouldn’t work if the officials couldn’t even reach the fighters’ vicinity. “I just be feeling like the Russians be cheating right now,” said Green. “For instance, Khabib and Islam and them, they go to a mosque you know … you can’t go inside, you can’t come in here for months. They can do whatever they want to do.”

Green’s words further solidified what Rogan had said. But did you know that the LW champ was also accused of washing down his alleged PED use with IV fluids?

Islam Makhachev was accused of using IV fluids

Back in 2023, the current UFC lightweight champion was accused of using PEDs through an intravenous (IV) route of administration, right after his victory over Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284. Needless to say, Joe Rogan discussed the issue on the ‘Joe Rogan Experience’. During the conversation with Shaffir, Rogan claimed that using the IV route after weigh-ins was nothing but “illegal”. The beloved UFC color commentator said with a tone of disappointment, “He cut so much weight to make 155, you’re not allowed to use an IV. ”

Furthermore, Rogan explained that using intravenous liquids could wash out any presence of PEDs in the human body. Because of this, the USADA tests would, without a doubt, come out negative, indicating no sign of PEDs. “Yeah, it’s illegal. It’s part of USADA because you could mask PEDs with an IV. So if you take certain PEDs you can flush your system out with IV and take a pi*s test, it won’t show up,” Rogan revealed.

However, the JRE host just wasn’t ready to believe the accusations on Makhachev to be true. As the conversation went on, the 56-year-old podcaster pointed out that he was not sure whether the lightweight champion used IV fluids to wash out remnant PEDs. He said, “But I don’t know whether or not he [Makhachev] actually (did it). They say that they caught him, they say they know. But I haven’t seen anything yet. So until then, I don’t know.”

Even Makhachev has denied all accusations. Later on, USADA also dropped the allegations. But what is your opinion? Do you believe Makhachev and other fighters from Khabib Nurmagomedov’s camp exploited IV fluids and used performance-enhancing drugs? Let us know in the comments below.