The ‘Drake Curse’ appears to be alive after the Canadian rapper lost $2 million betting on former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya to get the job done on Saturday night.
Fans at the world-famous Madison Square Garden were treated to the rise of a new 185-pound king as Alex Pereira defied the odds and scored a fifth-round TKO over ‘The Last Stylebender’ in the UFC 281 main event, much to the chagrin of high-stakes bettor Drake who dropped seven-figures on Adesanya.
It’s not the first time Drake has suffered a big loss betting on a world champion. At UFC 278, Drake dropped $200,000 on Kamaru Usman to defeat Leon Edwards by way of knockout. We all know how that played out. On that same card, Drake saw another $230,000 vanish betting on UFC legend Jose Aldo to beat Merab Dvalishvili.
DRAKE DROPPED $2M CAD ON ISRAEL ADESANYA 😳
(via @Drake) pic.twitter.com/gW4olBM1lU
— br_betting (@br_betting) November 13, 2022
Big Betting on Israel Adesanya Doesn’t Pay Off for Drake
Drake’s big bets on UFC events have become a topic of discussion for MMA fans as of late. While he did win a $1 million bet on Adesanya to defeat Jared Cannonier at UFC 276, things did not pan out for him on Saturday. Going into the fifth round, Israel Adesanya appeared to be just minutes away from a unanimous decision victory. Everything changed when Pereira rocked ‘Stylebender’ with a short left near the two-minute mark of the round.
Smelling blood in the water, ‘Poatan’ unloaded a barrage of strikes that Adesanya could not avoid entirely. After 10-seconds of eating blow after blow, the referee saw no choice, but to step in and call for the stoppage sending the MSG crowd into a frenzy.
Initially challenging the stoppage, Adesanya was humble in defeat during an interview with Megan Olivi, revealing that his coaches confirmed that the stoppage was good. For now, ‘Stylebender’ will go back to the drawing board, but it appears that a rematch between the two rivals is all, but guaranteed.
