Thanks to the Drake Curse, Israel Adesanya lost his UFC middleweight title to Sean Strickland at UFC 293. The two fighters went all five rounds against each other, but Sean put on a highlight performance against Izzy. In the end, the American fighter became the new UFC middleweight champion by unanimous decision.
The term ‘Drake Curse’ is once again the talk of the MMA community, as the majority of the mixed martial arts world believes that the curse affected Izzy’s abilities, leading to his loss of the UFC middleweight title to Strickland.
What is Drake Curse? Explained
The ‘Drake curse’ has become one of the internet’s biggest memes due to the downfall of sporting stars and teams after they interacted with the Canadian rapper. Put simply, if Drake wears a team’s shirt, poses for a photo alongside an athlete, publicly voices his support for any particular team or individual, or bets money on a team to win, that team or person will go on to lose – even against the odds!
The Drake's curse lives on 🥲#PulseSportsNigeria pic.twitter.com/djpoVUtNr6
— Pulse Sports Nigeria (@PulseSportsNG) September 10, 2023
The American rapper has frequently placed large bets on combat sports, including the UFC, and has earned a reputation for being ‘cursed’ due to his bad luck with betting. The Drake Curse is not limited to the UFC.
Drake placed $500k bet on Adesanya
The recent victim of the Drake Curse is none other than the former UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya. With odds of 1.84, he was hoping to see £738,000 credited to his bank account after Izzy delivered on his favorite tag, but things didn’t go his way in Sydney.
Drake has placed $500,000 on Israel Adesanya to knockout Sean Strickland at #UFC293 💰 pic.twitter.com/Y7joRD546G
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit) September 9, 2023
‘Tarzan’ won the fight, consequently costing Drake big time. Drake bet $500,000 and was hoping to nearly double it to $920,000.”
However Drake Curse doesn’t always result in losing the party he bet on. Despite his reputation as a jinx, the ‘Hotline Bling’ singer has had sporadic success with gambling. Earlier this year, he landed a whopping £2.2 million at UFC 287, where Izzy was the man he was backing. Izzy managed to knock out Alex Pereira to regain his UFC middleweight belt.
Drake also bet on the World Cup final between Argentina and France. In a video, Drake said to a friend, ‘I’ll take Argentina, he’ll take France. That will be a vibe.’ But despite Drake backing Argentina, the greatness of Lionel Messi outweighed the Drake Curse, and Argentina went on to lift the World Cup.
Drake also bet on Conor McGregor in his fight with Khabib, where the Irishman tasted defeat. Anthony Joshua is another victim of Drake’s Curse, as he suffered a defeat against Andy Ruiz Jr.
Fans all across the world believe it was the Drake Curse that led to Israel’s defeat at the hands of Strickland. Do you believe it was actually Drake or Izzy was simply not the better guy tonight?
