Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh doesn’t want the Drake curse anywhere near his Straight Blast Gym in Ireland.
Even from the sidelines, Drake continues to make a lot of big sporting events all about him. The musician and meme magnet has overtaken Reggie the Raptor as the Toronto Raptors’ court jester, pulling big headlines for trolling the Golden State Warriors and getting in the face of their star players as the two teams battle it out in the NBA finals.
There’s no signs Drake’s shenanigans are really affecting the Warriors at all, but the Raptors are up 1-0 in the series so they got that going for them, which is nice. If they end up winning the finals (their first championship in the team’s 24 year history) we’re sure he’ll take credit, though. And why not? He’s been given so much credit for athletes choking and fighters losing recently that you’d think he was their coach or something.
The latest to fall from the Drake curse: former WBA, IBF, and WBO champ Anthony Joshua, who lost to massive underdog and late replacement Andy Ruiz Jr. on Saturday night (watch the highlights here). Joshua wasn’t just photographed with Drake, which seems to be all it takes in the minds of many fans to result in doom, doom, DOOM! Back in mid-March he taunted the gods by declaring he’d break the Drake curse.
Bout to break the curse #June1st pic.twitter.com/UIh3ILUfrE
— Anthony Joshua (@anthonyfjoshua) March 21, 2019
That tweet didn’t age well as Ruiz ended up knocking Joshua down four times, forcing the ref to wave off the fight. Drake curse in full. Effect.
Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh must have seen that go down because he made the following tweet from Stockholm Sweden where he’d been on hand to corner Makwan Amirkhani at UFC on ESPN+ Gustafsson vs. Smith.
If drake ever tries visit my gym he’s getting roundhoused pic.twitter.com/F0brI34Ovo
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) June 2, 2019
Unfortunately for Kavanagh, Drake has already rubbed his bad mojo all over Conor McGregor. Here he is supporting Conor leading up to the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight:
He’s already had an effect on ur fighter tho pic.twitter.com/k4yGFNzfox
— W.C (@waqar0204) June 2, 2019
And then Drake actually walked McGregor onto the stage for the UFC 229 weigh-ins against Khabib Nurmagomedov:
Drake & Mystic Mac | and team up at #UFC229 weigh-ins pic.twitter.com/0HGl9Lyrnn
— UFC (@ufc) October 6, 2018
Kavanagh had a cheeky response to that when a fan brought it up, repeating the motto he and McGregor have been using to put a slightly better spin on recent losses.
Win or learn
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) June 2, 2019
And hey, just some more evidence that this Drake thing is for real: There was no Drake involved with Kavanagh’s pupil Makwan Amirkhani at UFC Sweden, and Amirkhani won handily with a slick submission win.