Alex Pereira is just weeks away from one of the toughest fights of his career, yet instead of being locked into training camp, he’s out in Australia, hanging out with Drake backstage at a concert. And Daniel Cormier isn’t a fan of it. Why? Have you ever heard of the Drake curse?
The Canadian rapper constantly bets on big sporting events and no matter who he picks, loses. Interestingly, he picked Israel Adesanya to win against Pereira in their 2022 middleweight title fight. What happened? Izzy, who had been a champion for years, lost. In August 2024, during UFC 305, Drake placed a $450,000 bet on Adesanya to reclaim the middleweight title from Dricus du Plessis. Did it work? Nope!
5 years before this, boxer Anthony Joshua was seen hanging out with the rapper. There might be a cosmic misconnection somewhere because, despite being an overwhelming favorite to win, he got knocked out by Andy Ruiz Jr. in June 2019.
Once is a co-incidence, naturally, DC is worried! “Drake constantly loses millions,” he pointed out.
While speaking to Chael Sonnen, Cormier further shed light on his concerns saying, “This dude was seen in Australia last week still and he was shaking the hand of Drake. As Drake went on stage for his concert… you kinda don’t want Drake to bet on you.”
However, the ‘Drake Curse’ wasn’t even the biggest thing on DC’s mind. “What is Pereira still doing in Australia, Chael?”, he asked in utter disbelief that ‘Poatan’ wasn’t back in camp training with his title defense at UFC 313 drawing uncomfortably close.
So is Pereira taking his next opponent, Magomed Anlaev lightly? Pereira has claimed he always has nerves and is a little afraid of all his opponents.
Nerves no big deal, ‘in control’, claims Pereira
Pereira is a terrifying human being. The Brazilian champ stands six-foot-four, walks around at 230 pounds, and has fists the size of footballs—which, according to his opponents, feel like they’re made of solid stone. Hence the nickname ‘Poatan’, which literally translates to ‘Stone Hands’.
Yet, despite all that, old ‘Stone Hands’ gets really nervous before every fight. That’s funny because he’s only gone and made a career out of knocking out former world champions like Jiri Prochazka, Jamahal Hill, and Israel Adesanya.
In a chat with Mark Bouris, Pereira explained that there was no one specific who put the fear of god in him. But…
“I am scared of all of them. I feel the same way about all of them. I can not name one. Obviously always nervous a lot of times, but to a point where I can control”, he added with a hint of modesty!
But will he be nervous about Ankalaev, the first real grappler he fights in the UFC? He can’t afford to be if he wishes to one day main event a PPV with UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones- you know, the same fight he’s been angling for, for some time now.
Pereira and Ankalaev duke it out at UFC 313 in less than a month’s time, on March 8, 2025!
