Conor McGregor Reaches Top 5 Status for Highest Paid Athletes in the World
Conor McGregor is now one of the five highest paid athletes in the world.
Forbes released it’s annual list of the highest paid athletes globally with McGregor coming in at No. 4 with an estimated $99 million made in 2017.
The majority of McGregor’s money came from his only fight last year where he took on Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match that ultimately became the second biggest pay-per-view event of all time.
“McGregor banked an estimated $85 million for the fight, more than five times his previous top paycheck,” Forbes wrote about the prolific UFC superstar. “The fight had 4.3 million PPV buys and generated more than $550 million in revenue. The Irishman signed a slew of deals over the past 12 months with the buzz around the Mayweather fight. His current partners are Burger King, Beats by Dre, Monster Energy, David August, BSN, Anheuser-Busch, HiSmile and Betsafe. He also has a residency deal with the Wynn Las Vegas for all of his afterparties, and his digital properties, Conor McGregor FAST Program, MacMoji App, MacTalk App and the Mac Life, also generate cash.”
McGregor came in at No. 4 while Mayweather was back at No. 1 after he earned an estimated $285 million with the majority of that money coming from his showdown with the former UFC champion last August.
McGregor’s status sky rocketed after making the Forbes list last year at No. 24 with an estimated earnings at $34 million.
McGregor has long talked about becoming the highest paid athlete in the world and even touted getting past his pal and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo but he came up just short in 2017.
Ronaldo sits at No. 3 this year with estimated earnings at $108 million.
While McGregor didn’t get past Ronaldo, he did manage to soar past several other high profile athletes including NBA superstar LeBron James, who came in at No. 6 with $85.5 million earned as well as NFL quarterback Matt Ryan at $67.3 million.
James and Ryan were the highest paid athletes in their respective sports of basketball and football.
As far as other combat sports athletes, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez was the second highest ranked boxer at No. 15 with $44.5 million earned after he engaged in a highly publicized event against Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin last year.
Heavyweight champion boxer Anthony Joshua also jumped up the list to No. 25 after earning a reported $39 million last year.
While McGregor made the top five on the list this year, he is also the only mixed martial artist to make the top 100 highest paid athletes in the most recent list. Previously, former UFC champion Ronda Rousey was also part of the list but she fell off after her exit from the sport where she was largely absent from the spotlight in 2017.
Even McGregor’s entry at No. 4 isn’t really representing mixed martial arts as the bulk of his money came from his lone fight last year, which was the boxing match against Mayweather.
