Do these things if you want to lose a UFC Fight: UFC’s 5 curses 

Just like any other sport, The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is rocked with its many superstitious athletes. Whether it be Jan Blachowicz touching a piece of rope from a hanged man in the forest to Paulo Costa’s “secret juice”, there is a flurry of pre-fight rituals and superstitions that these ambitious fighters follow. 

However, with all of these rituals and beliefs, comes a few general curses that most fighters believe will make you lose your next fight. These are the top five UFC curses that seemingly guarantee a loss to the fighter who partakes pre-game. 

The first is known as the “Conan Curse.” With the fame of being a star athlete, comes a slew of media attention. Most star fighters will do a press tour in order to promote their upcoming bout. 

A number of star fighters including Ronda Rousey, Nate Diaz, Michael Bisping, Miesha Tate and ‘Notorious’ Conor McGregor went on Conan’s show ahead of their big title fights… and all lost. 

However, there is hope, as Lafayette native and two-division champion Daniel ‘DC’ Cormier seems to have broken this curse in 2018 ahead of his first heavyweight title fight against Stipe Miocic. Cormier successfully won his heavyweight belt against Miocic on July 7, 2018. 

DC would later go back on Conan and explain how he felt to the former Tonight Show host. “Nothing is crazier than the fact that I just won this fight even though I went to Conan”, the defending champion said, sporting a broken hand and two golden championship belts sitting upright on O’Brien’s desk. Although the curse may be broken, there are still a number of fighters who refused to go on the Conan Show. 

The second is in regards to the Electronic Arts video game cover. Every few years, EA comes out with a new UFC video game. These games give fans the opportunity to play as their favorite UFC fighters in an octagon with other players, to see who is the Ultimate Fighter. 

Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor, who were featured on the UFC 2 cover, would go on to lose to Amanda Nunes and Nate Diaz respectively. McGregor was also on the cover of UFC 3, right before his infamous loss to Khabib ‘The Eagle’ Nurmagomedov. 

Former welterweight champ Jorge Masvidal and former middleweight champ Israel Adesanya would both lose to Kamaru Usman and Alex Pereira respectively after posing for the cover of UFC 4. UFC 5 released Oct. 24, 2023 and features former featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski who would go on to lose his featherweight belt to Ilia Topuria. 

While women’s former flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko would go on to lose her belt to Alexa Grasso after featuring on the cover of UFC 5 alongside Volkanovski. 

The third has to do with how Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham places his bets. Anyone who pays attention to the betting world of MMA, knows that whoever the rapper Drake bets on, will probably lose, as Graham’s UFC bets have not been the most successful as of late. 

In November of 2022, Drake lost a $2 million bet on Israel Adesanya after he was knocked out by Alex Pereira, he then went on to lose an additional $700,000 after betting on Sean Strickland who lost by split decision to current middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis. On Aug. 17, 2024, Drake would put a $450,000 bet on Israel Adesanya to beat Du Plessis during their bout at UFC 305. 

Adesanya would go on to lose by submission in the fourth round. If you enjoy betting on fights, it may be best to find out who Drake betted for, and pick the opposite fighter. 

The fourth is known as “The Cupping Curse.” The eight-week fight camp fighters take leading up to their bout is filled with not only intense dieting, exercising and sparring, but also intense physical therapy treatments to get their body into tip top shape. 

One of these treatments is cupping, the act of suctioning many small cups onto a patient’s back in order to encourage blood flow. 

Gilbert Burns had these marks when he lost to Khamzat Chimaev and heavyweight Derrick Lewis had the markings when he was viciously knocked out by Tai Tuivasa; Jared Vanderaa had them when he lost to Andrei Arlovski, and most recently Curtis Blaydes had the markings when he was TKO’d one minute into his rematch against Tom Aspinall. 

There is no telling whether it is a simple coincidence, or there is a link between cupping and losing. If you are a fighter, it’s probably best to skip the cupping and find a different form of therapy. 

Finally, we get to Paul Felder. Paul Felder is a former lightweight contender who had a professional career of 17 wins and six losses who is now an ESPN commentator. Since 2015, every contender who has won a fight against Paul Felder has lost their next fight. 

Edson Barboza would beat him at UFC on Fox 16 and would go on to lose to Tony Ferguson in his next fight. Ross Pearson would go on to lose to Francisco Trinaldo. Similarly, Trinaldo would go on to lose to Kevin Lee. Mike Perry lost to Donald Cerrone after defeating Felder, and finally Dan Hooker would lose to Dustin Poirier in his next bout. 

With the many superstitions floating throughout the UFC, these curses were sure to doom fighters. One thing is certain: best steer clear of these if you want to protect your professional fighting record.