Tom Wood
Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis put paid to the so-called ‘Drake Curse’ last night after his devastating stoppage win against Ryan Garcia, with the Canadian rapper scooping a reported $1.38 million after backing the champ.
Davis vs Garcia was one of the most hotly-anticipated fights of the year, with both fighters bringing undefeated records into the Las Vegas ring.
In the seventh round, multiple weight world champion Davis snuck a crushing body shot underneath his 24-year-old opponent’s guard and into his ribcage.
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After trying to continue, Garcia dropped to his haunches and never got back into the fight, with the referee ordering a stoppage.
The 28-year-old from Baltimore was declared the winner, which will have delighted not only his fans and his team, but also 36-year-old rapper Drake.
Before the fight, he shared a picture from his betting app showing that he’d put a million bucks on Davis to win, captioning the shot: “Tank day aka pay day.”
However, not all his bets came in.
Drake - real name Aubrey Drake Graham - put three separate bets on Davis to win by knockout in the first, second, and third rounds.
Obviously, those $15,000 bets didn’t come in, but they’ve been more than paid for by the big bet on the outcome.
After the fight, Davis joked: “I need half of that.”
He added: “No, it’s pretty cool to have people like that believe in me.
“It made me push harder and stuff like that.
“So, shoutout to Drake and the rest of the people that backed me.
“This is only the beginning for me.
“I have a bright future and I’m staying humble through it all.
“What can it say? We done it again tonight.”
He might not have been so glad of the support from Drake beforehand, though.
The musician has become the subject of a so-called ‘Drake Curse’ after posing with sportspeople or wearing their kit.
The idea is that if Drake wears your stuff or appears alongside you, you’re going down.
It even affects his own teams, with the Toronto Raptors falling foul of it a number of times.
Soccer players Jadon Sancho, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, and Sergio Aguero have been laid low by the ‘curse’, as have teams like Paris Saint Germain, Miami Heat, and Kentucky basketball.
Anthony Joshua and Conor McGregor both suffered defeats after receiving Drake’s patronage, and soccer team Roma have even joked about a ban on their players meeting him.
It won’t bother Davis though, as he managed to get through the toughest fight of his career to date even with Drake’s backing.
You wouldn’t back against Davis carrying his unbeaten record a bit further, either.