Drake wins over £2M after placing huge bets on Israel Adesanya to beat Alex Pereira

Drake kept his MMA betting hot streak going at UFC 287.

Israel Adesanya won back his UFC middleweight title by knocking out Alex Pereira inside two rounds on Saturday night.

Adesanya’s rivalry with Pereira dates back to their days as kickboxers but he failed to beat the Brazilian knockout artist in his first three attempts.

Despite that, ‘The Last Stylebender’ was a small favourite heading into their second MMA fight and Drake fancied him to finally get a win over ‘Poatan’ in the main event of the UFC’s latest pay-per-view show.

The Canadian superstar bet £402,544 [$500,000] on Adesanya to simply win by any method but clearly thought the New Zealander was going to stop his biggest rival and wagered £322,000 [$400,000] on a KO victory.

In the UFC 287 co-main event, Jorge Masvidal hoped to snap his three-fight losing streak when he faced long-time welterweight contender Gilbert Burns.

‘Gamebred’ was more than a 3/1 underdog, but Drake backed him anyway.

The rapper bet £242,000 [$300,000] on Masvidal to win by any method and £161,000 [$200,000] on him to score a knockout as he often did during his rise to the top of MMA’s premier promotion.

‘Gamebred’ slumped to a decision defeat before announcing his 20-year MMA career is over

Adesanya coming good means Drake walks away from UFC 287 with a cool £2.19 million but he could’ve made close to £5 million if Masvidal got the KO too.

The UFC has been kind to him in the past, just last month he won £1.4 million betting on Jon Jones to beat Ciryl Gane in their heavyweight title fight at UFC 285.

Drake decided to skip UFC 286 despite winning a huge amount of money betting on Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann the last time the UFC travelled to England.

The 36-year-old spent some of his £2.98 million winnings on new luxury watches for ‘The Baddy’ and his long-time Next Generation teammate.

Adesanya will be hoping he will be treated with the same courtesy after making Drake a richer man than he already was at UFC 287.

And the victorious champion was asked about Drake’s bet after the fight and 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.”