Bets on Pimblett and McCann at UFC London net Drake $3.7 million at Stake.com

Drake won a huge $1.5 million (£1.2 million) by betting on UFC fighters from Liverpool named Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett and “Meatball” Molly McCann. Drake is a well-known UFC enthusiast who has previously backed Conor McGregor.

Drake supported the Scouse duo to win their individual UFC fights, putting a crypto bet of $2.2million (£1.9million) at Stake.com ahead of the event. He shared an image of his betting slip with his 117 million Instagram followers, captioning it, “A scousers parlay @stake.”

The pair had a night to remember, with McCann winning in the first round against American opponent Hannah Goldy and Pimblett forcing opponent Jordan Leavitt to tap out in the second. Pimblett offered a heartfelt speech following his victory, dedicating part of his victory to Lee-Joshua Hodgson, a four-year-old kid who died after battling a rare form of cancer called metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma alveolar (ARMS).

When they got into the Octagon, they definitely had no larger backers than Drake. Backstage, after the dust had cleared on their triumphs, McCann released a video on Instagram with Pimblett and made a plea to Drake after learning about his pre-fight wager.

McCann stated: “Drake, your curse has been broken. Could I please have a Rolex?”

Pimblett then appears on the video and says: “Champagne Papi come on what are we getting for that?”

The rapper agreed to purchase the two a couple of Rolex watches as a “thank you” for winning him the considerable sum.

Drake penned, “Rollies for Meatball and the Baddy.” He tagged Stake, who re-posted the story with the description, “Secured the W & the rollie.”

In an interview with ESPN, McCann stated: “Can I just put this out there to ESPN, Drake… did I say that before?… I’m aware that I’m inebriated… Drake is getting me and Paddy new Rollies.”

“We’ve just been texting on Instagram and he’s like, ‘yeah, you’re getting a Rolex each for that,'” added Pimblett.

Pimblett also used the occasion to raise awareness about men’s mental health in light of the recent death of a close friend. He advised the males in the stadium to speak up if they felt the need to. An emotional Pimblett urged men to erase the stigma associated with discussing mental health. He elaborated on this during the post-fight news conference, claiming that he wishes to establish a mental health charity or foundation.

While, as Pimblett pointed out, things are starting to change, there is still a lot of stigma around mental health in general. It’s especially common in sports, where macho culture and testosterone-fueled situations can cause sentiments and mental health concerns to be discounted as weakness. This is why it’s encouraging to see Pimblett and a few other boxers deviate from the usual and use their platform to raise awareness about a problem that is frequently neglected and dismissed. Post-fight, UFC president Dana White couldn’t contain his joy after watching probably the finest bunch of fights 2022 has to offer and having them embraced so enthusiastically by the 20,000 spectators at the O2 Arena.