Despite only fighting once in 2020, and losing, Conor McGregor appears to have gotten the last laugh outside the octagon. Forbes just released its annual list of the highest earning athletes on the planet, and the brash talking Irishman claimed the number one spot on the chart after taking home a whopping $180M last year. Only 3 other athletes managed to crack the $100M mark during a period where COVID ravaged the sports landscape worldwide. McGregor joins Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Dak Prescott in the $100M+ club.
Yet as renowned as Conor may be for his fists, it was his investments which made him the lion’s share of his fortune this past year. McGregor pocketed a reported $22M for his fight against Dustin Poirier, which leaves $158M in earnings coming from ventures outside of the UFC. Chief among them was the sale of his whiskey brand Proper No. Twelve which the fighter has been touting for some time now both stateside and abroad. He also has stakes in DraftKings (gambling platform), Roots of Fight (lifestyle brand), and Dystopia (video game) which helped his bottom line when all was said and done.
Forbes’ list took into account earnings between May 1st 2020 to May 1st 2021, and included everything from bonuses, to endorsement deals and contract earnings to come to their final numbers. This year marks McGregor’s first time topping the annual list of highest earning athletes, though he did make another top 10 appearance in 2018 after his fight with Floyd Mayweather.
With figures like that, it’s no wonder why every fighter in the UFC and beyond is clamouring to get into the ring with Conor, as well as why fighters who command large PPV buys (such as Jon Jones) have been taking hardline stances with Dana White and the UFC in recent years. Where McGregor goes, so does the money, and other fighters are looking to capitalize on their “brands” in similar fashion. Suddenly, with the shrewd business moves he’s been making, perhaps Conor’s idea to one day purchase Manchester United (the Premier League’s most valuable franchise) isn’t as far-fetched as it once seemed.
Of all the athletes in the top 10, McGregor made the lowest amount of money from in-game performances, except for Roger Federer who sat out nearly the entire year with a knee injury, yet still managed to take home an astounding $90M in endorsements alone. This year marks the first time that 4 athletes have simultaneously topped the $100M mark. Unfortunately absent from the top 10 are any women, which once again shows how far we still have to go in terms of marketing and compensating women’s sports stars on the same level as their male counterparts.
The full list of athletes who made the cut can be found here.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner