Canadian rap musician who first gained fame as an actor on the acclaimed TV teenage drama series Degrassi Drake pockets are $2 million lighter after Saturday's UFC middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira in UFC 281. The Grammy Award-winning rapper placed a $2 million bet on Adesanya to win the bout, but Pereira came out victorious.
According to CBS Sports, Adesanya had the upper hand for a large amount of the fight. That was until the fifth round, when Pereira landed some huge blows that left Adesanya a little wobbly on his feet. While Pereira didn't knock down Adesanya, the referee stopped the fight and Pereira was declared the winner.
But of course, Alex Pereira was no ordinary opponent. Despite being a relative newbie in the UFC with just three matches in the organization before the title fight, Pereira had fought against and beaten Adesanya not one, but twice during their time in the kickboxing circuit. He was the only one to every KO Izzy in any organized combat bout and now holds two knockouts over the former middleweight champion, per Clutch Points.
This was Pereira's third career victory over Adesanya with the previous two wins coming in kickboxing matches.
Prior to the fight, Drake posted his betting slip on his Instagram story and captioned it, "been focused on the album gotta get back to stacking up." The rapper would've won $2.9 million if Adesanya pulled out the victory.
Drake has never been shy about placing large bets in the past. The 36-year-old won a $1 million bet when Adesanya defeated Jared Cannonier back in July. He's bet on everything from the Super Bowl to the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix to the NBA and NHL playoffs in the past.
Perhaps if someone showed Drake the footage of Adesanya’s 2017 KO loss to Pereira, he would’ve opted not to make the bet at all. Still, it’s hard to feel sorry for a man with a net worth well over the nine-figure threshold.
Sources: Clutch Points, CBS Sports
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