Drake wins $2.7million after placing two huge bets on Israel Adesanya to defeat Alex Pereira at UFC 287.
Rapper Drake has won a whopping $2.7million after Israel Adesanya knocked out Alex Pereira at UFC 287 to reclaim the middleweight title this morning.
The Nigerian-born New Zealander won back the 185lb title just five months after he lost it to his bitter rival Pereira, who has previously beaten him twice in kickboxing.
Drake lost $1.6million after backing Adesanya to win in that fight but he made amends for the rapper in his rematch with Pereira.
According to Mirror UK, the Canadian placed a $500,000 bet on Adesanya to win which returned $885,000, and a $400,000 bet for him to win by knockout, which returned a massive $1.8million.
‘Stylebender’ was asked about Drake’s bet after his fight, to which he said: “Shoutout to everyone that bet on me but you have to realise that when I step into the octagon I put my life on the line. That’s the biggest parlay you can ever do. I’m a betting man too so shoutout to stake, we are about to make another deal and get more money.”
The win over Pereira is Adesanya’s 24th in his career in mixed martial arts (MMA) and he had suffered just two losses.
Drake gained notoriety for his UFC bets when he backed Masvidal to beat Colby Covington in their grudge fight last March, but the rapper lost $275,000 on the fight. His bad luck continued just months later when Justin Gaethje was choked out by Charles Oliveira in their lightweight title clash, with Gaethje’s loss costing Drake $400,000.
After a bad few months of betting for ‘Drizzy’, he broke his poor run by winning $1m when Adesanya beat Jared Cannonier in their title fight last July. Drake’s six-figure bets paid off when Scouse duo Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann won their respective fights UFC London. Their wins pocketed Drake a $3.6m payday and he showed his appreciation by gifting Pimblett and McCann new Rolex watches.