Israel Adesanya’s shock defeat to Sean Strickland at UFC 293 in Sydney proved a costly result for rapper Drake, who placed a big sum of the Kiwi to defend his middleweight title. 

Adesanya was beaten in a lopsided decision by the Strickland, who stymied his Kiwi adversary on his way to the win - all three judges scoring the fight 49-46 in his favour. 

Drake placed a massive bet on Adesanya to knock out Strickland in the main event. 

The rapper shared the bet on his Instagram account over the weekend, placing $US500,000 ($844,700) which would have paid out $US920,000 ($1.55m). 

Dubbed the ‘Drake curse’, the Canadian has previously posed for photos, thrown his support or bet large sums on sports stars and teams who’ve then suffered defeats. 

This is not the first time Adesanya has let down the 36-year-old rapper. 

Drake bet $2 million [$3.4m] on the New Zealander to beat Pereira at UFC 281 in November 2022, only for Adesanya to suffer a fifth-round stoppage loss. 

Last year he bet US$1 million on Argentina to win last year’s Football World Cup in normal time. The South Americans won the game on penalties, meaning Drake was the only loser that time.