‘Drake Curse’ Continues After Rapper Blows $2 Million Betting On UFC Star Israel Adesanya

Israel Adesanya was doomed from the beginning.

drake looking sad at bar

Image: @ChampagnePapi

Rapper Drake has lost his biggest sports bet to date, squandering an enormous 2 million Canadian dollars (AU $2.3 million) on Israel Adesanya this weekend, after the fighter was knocked out at the main event of UFC 281.


The Grammy Award winner would have been feeling content up until the fifth round, with Adesanya largely taking the upper hand in the fight and winning on all three judges’ score cards. That was until Adesanya’s opponent Alex Pereira landed some huge blows, stopping the fight and shockingly dethroning the long-time UFC Middleweight Champion.

This was the third time Pereira defeated Adesanya in combat sports, the previous two coming when the two met in kickboxing matches in 2016 and 2017.

Drake announced his huge bet on his Instagram, captioning his story “been focused on the album gotta get back to stacking up.”

If Adesanya was victorious on Saturday – Sunday afternoon for many Australian watchers – Drake would have pocketed a sweet CA $2.9 million (AU $3.2 million).

‘Drake Curse’

Israel Adesanya (left) is not the only athlete that has suffered as a result of the supposed ‘Drake Curse’. Image: @stylebender & @champagnepapi

The most recent UFC card is not the first time ‘Drizzy’ has bet big but ended up with his pockets feeling a little lighter.

At UFC 278, the rapper lost a reported $430,000 (AU $642,000) after betting on fighters Kamaru Usman and José Aldo, both of whom lost their respective bouts.

Similarly at UFC 274, the rapper put $427,000 (AU $638,000) on American Justin Gaethje, in his fight against then-Lightweight Champion Charles Oliveira. As is Drake’s luck, Gaethje would be submitted in the first round.

The amusing thing about the Drake curse is that is not simply limited to the UFC and the bets he puts on. Some sports stars who have done as little as pose with Canadian in the past have fallen foul to his ghostly jinxing.

Manchester City’s players took photos with ‘6 God’ in 2019, only to found they shockingly bowed out to Tottenham Hotspur shortly after in the UEFA Champions League.

Similarly, Drake spent a lot of time backstage with UFC fighter Conor McGregor in the lead up to his hyped grudge match with Khabib Nurmagomedov back in 2018; the Irishman was ultimately submitted by his rival.

However, the rapper has used his mystical ability from time-to-time to ‘help’ teams to succeed.

During game 7 in the 2019 Eastern Conference semi-finals, Drake was spotted wearing Philadelphia 76ers shorts, despite them playing against his hometown Toronto Raptors. As is the natural order of things, the Raptors won with a buzzer beater to progress to the next round of the playoffs.

If Drake is thinking of betting on this year’s FIFA World Cup, we have to pray he bets against the Socceroos!

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