The Drake curse? What in the world is that?

It’s the belief some fans have that Canadian rapper Drake passes on bad juju to a sports star or team whenever he poses for a picture with them or shows up at a match to support them.

Sounds ridiculous? It probably is, but British boxer Anthony Joshua might be thinking otherwise. After all, he suffered his first defeat in his professional career last weekend after posing for a picture with the rapper in March.

He even boasted he was going to be the person who would break the "curse" but, as CNN reports, “Joshua's heavyweight boxing skills seemed to be no match for the Drake curse.”

So, could the curse be real? Here are other times the rapper’s presence did not bode well for sports stars. You decide…

SERENA WILLIAMS

In September 2015, when US tennis great Serena Williams suffered a shock defeat to Italy’s Roberta Vinci in the semifinals of the US Open, her fans blamed Drake for it.

Why? The rapper was present at the match, supporting her. Williams, however,  dismissed the curse in a 2016 interview with Glamour.

We did, however, conduct a quick social media trawl to make sure he was in no way to blame for her third round defeat at the French Open this past weekend. Still pending…

CONOR MCGREGOR, Irish mixed martial artist

In October last year, Drake posed with Ultimate Fighting Championship victor McGregor, before his mixed martial arts event in Las Vegas against Russian Khabib Nurmagomedovin.

According to CNN, McGregor suffered one of the worst beatings in his career. He retired five months later.

SOCCER STARS

In March, Sergio Agüero’s team Manchester City won a match one day before posing with Drake backstage at a concert. However, City lost their game against Tottenham Spurs a month later during a crucial Champion's League match when Agüero missed his penalty.

Around the same time, Borussia Dortmund player Jadon Sancho met the rapper and also posed for a picture, according to The Sun. His team lost 5-0 to Bayern Munich the very next month.

Other soccer stars to have supposedly been touched by the curse are Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Manchester United’s Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku.

BASKETBALL TEAMS

Sure, Time might describe Drake as an NBA “bandwagon fan” but he clearly has his favourites, such as the Toronto Raptors, Miami Heat, as well as college squad University of Kentucky Wildcats.

In fact, when the Wildcats won a National Collegiate Athletic Association championship in 2012, they showed their appreciation for Drake's support by giving him a ring engraved “Drizzy”, his nickname, as he had become a courtside regular at their games.

They have yet to win another NCAA championship.

Drake after the Kentucky Wildcats lost the 2014 NCAA final