Rapper Drake ended last night £368,000 poorer after he staked a sizeable fortune on Nigerian-American Kamaru Usman to defeat Leon Edwards at UFC 278.
Usman, who was previously undefeated in UFC, was knocked out by a resurgent Edwards to lose the welterweight title bout in Salt Lake City.
Drake, who has had a number of high profile gambles on mixed martial arts, staked £368,000 across a number of UFC bouts on Saturday night.
Kamaru Usman was brutally knocked out by a resurgent Leon Edwards to lose in Salt Lake City
The hip-hop artist staked £169,000 on the Nigerian Usman to defeat Edwards having also placed a bet of around £194,000 on Jose Aldo to defeat Merab Dvalishvili.
Usman went into the fight as the fancied chance with the bookmakers with few giving Edwards much of a hope of winning the belt off the previously invincible UFC titan.
Drake has long been accused of representing something of a curse to those sports people and teams that he backs.
However, it appeared as though he had recently shaken that label when he won £3m on a double bet when Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann won on the same night a number of weeks ago in London.
At least for the time being his luck appears to have run out with the rapper losing hundreds of thousands of pounds on the UFC 278 event.
Drake’s bet was comprised of two parts in relation to Usman with the first being a straight £126,000 wager that he would defeat the Brit and the second being a slightly more adventurous call at the cost of £41,000 that the win would come in the fourth round.
Leon Edwards’ astonishing comeback win over Kamaru Usman was a huge moment for MMA
Prior to Usman’s shock knockout defeat to Edwards, Dvalishvili beat Aldo on points in a gruelling encounter meaning Drake also saw £194,000 flitter away.
Meanwhile, Edwards spoke of his delight at stepping into the octagon and defeating Usman.
‘It’s hard to put it into words, that’s why I broke down in the octagon as everyone knows my path. I’ve said it all week, I believe that’s how it had to go to build me into the man I am today,’ he said.
‘That was one of the worst performances of my career, I did not feel good in there tonight but I went in there and knocked out the pound-for-pound No.1.’
Drake is a known high stakes gambler and saw himself lose a significant fortune on UFC 278
First published in Daily Mail