Drake asked to stop betting on fighters by Dustin Poirier’s gym after Israel Adesanya falls victim to rapper’s curse

The Drake curse is becoming so real that one of the most famous MMA gyms has asked him to avoid betting on their fighters.

On Monday, American Top Team [ATT], which is home to Dustin Poirier, Jorge Masvidal, and Paige VanZant, sent a polite message to Drake on social media.

“Dear Mr. Drake Please don’t bet on any of our fighters. Respectfully #AmericanTopTeam#JustSayNo#GodsPlan#UFC,” the Florida MMA gym tweeted.

The Canadian rapper is yet to respond to the post, and it’s unlikely he will, after breathing life into rumours that he’s cursed with a massive bet on UFC 293.

Drake backed heavy favourite Israel Adesanya to KO Sean Strickland in their middleweight title fight, placing £400,000 [$500,000] on him to find the finish in Sydney, Australia this past weekend.

However, Strickland ended up scoring an early knockdown before cruising to victory over five rounds to become the new middleweight champion with one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.

While most people simply gave the unfancied American props for upsetting the odds, some suggested Drake had jinxed Adesanya with his monstrous bet.

The 36-year-old has a reputation for backing losing sportspeople and teams – it’s become known as ‘The Drake Curse’, even though he doesn’t always lose.

Despite his reputation, the Hotline Bling singer does have sporadic success with gambling and earlier this year he landed a whopping £2.2 million at UFC 287.

Adesanya was the man he was backing, and on that occasion, he managed to KO Alex Pereira to regain his UFC middleweight belt.

However, big money losses are much more common for him.

Drake splashed £200,000 [$250K] on Nate Diaz to beat Jake Paul in August, only for the YouTube star to claim victory via unanimous decision.

He also bet a million dollars that Argentina would beat France in the World Cup final - in normal time - a match that Lionel Messi and co. would win on penalties.

Drake also reckoned Paul would knock Tommy Fury out in their bout earlier this year, only for TNT to win via unanimous decision.

UFC 293 was not the first time Adesanya has cost him big.

Drake bet £1.7 million [$2M] on the New Zealander to beat Pereira at UFC 281, only for him to suffer a fifth-round stoppage loss.

It's unlikely his losing habit will stop anytime soon. American Top Team is just hoping he opts against backing any of their fighters in the future.