Fights
McGregor is a downed pilot. Collapsed in the Forbes ranking, but still richer than Khabib
The income of the scandalous Irishman fell four times in a year.
Mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor is no longer the richest athlete on the planet, having collapsed in the Forbes rankings in the middle of the fourth decade. The hero of yesterday enters the octagon less often, where he is becoming less and less competitive – his annual income has fallen by more than four times.
However, nothing prevents the “Infamous” from being the highest paid representative of MMA, earning more than not only yesterday’s champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, but also all the most successful current fighters.
Why is it not worth worrying about the financial condition of the Irishman yet?
Vloggers are on their heels
American magazine Forbes has published its latest rating of the richest sportsmen of the planet, which according to 2022 headed the Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi. Earning for the past 12 months, a total of $ 130 million, the attacker “Paris Saint-Germain” ahead of American basketball player LeBron James ($ 121.2 million), the Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo ($ 115 million), its Brazilian counterpart Neimar ($ 95 million) and other famous athletes modernity.
Last year’s leader Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor fell to 35th position – his earnings amounted to $ 43 million against 180 million a year earlier. In mixed martial arts, however, the “Notorious” lover of strong drinks still knows no equal. This applies to both modern champions like Francis Ngannou and Kamaru Usmanu, and hyped fighters from yesterday’s UFC stars.
From the Forbes rating of “50 most successful Russian stars”, for example, you can find out that the annual income of Khabib Nurmagomedov, who beat Conor in the octagon, was only $ 12 million. True, the Russian has not been fighting since 2020, while his former opponent managed to get rich during the reporting period in the fight lost to Dustin Poirier in the UFC.
Khabib is unlikely to overtake McGregor in terms of income in the foreseeable future, but still, the Irishman’s growth prospects are not yet obvious. Whether his peers will soon overtake him is unclear, but other knockout specialists have already left Conor behind. Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez took eighth place in the overall ranking, earning $ 90 million in a year. Briton Tyson Fury is 18th with 62 million. On the heels comes Jake Paul, who is a conditional boxer, which, however, did not prevent the American video blogger from earning $30 million in the ring and $8 million outside of it.
Poor because of whiskey
For what reasons Conor’s earnings sank, it is not so difficult to figure it out, although a cursory glance at the income statement of the Irishman may raise questions. Indeed, if we talk about financial success in the octagon, Conor’s last 12-month period turned out to be even more successful. The year before last, the Irishman earned $ 22 million for fights in the octagon – the fight lost to Dustin Poirier in Abu Dhabi was included in the reporting period. Over the past year, the octagon has already managed to snatch $ 33 million. Infamous again lost to Poirier, but in Las Vegas, where 10 times more viewers watched his failure live than on Fight Island.
With income from sponsorship contracts, the Irishman’s situation has not become worse either. It was possible to earn $10 million, thus increasing the income item by two million. The failure happened for another, more prosaic reason. The fighter became the leader of the 2021 rating by selling his stake in Proper No, a company specializing in hard alcohol, for $150 million. Last year, Conor failed to sell shares in the manufacturer of whiskey, beer, or at least moonshine, probably for lack of them in the right amount. Of course, it cannot be said that due to the lack of sales, the fighter became poorer, but he could not maintain annual income at an acceptable level.
As for the prospects, there is no reason for great optimism in the context of the struggle for leadership with Messi and the company. As a fighter, Conor is becoming less and less interesting – in his last four fights he has three defeats. Of course, on occasion, the UFC will be able to earn a decent amount on behalf of the Irishman losing competitiveness, part of which will fall to McGregor. However, this cannot go on forever.
Sponsorship contracts will bring big money to the promoted media character for longer, but there are reasonable limits here. However, Conor can always start a gamble like a fight with Floyd Mayweather, when he managed to earn about $ 85 million for a lost fight. It will be difficult to repeat this, but still, knowing the Irishman, he will definitely be able to take his own. It’s definitely not worth worrying about McGregor’s income in the near future.
Source: Sportbox
I have been working as a sports journalist for about 6 years now. I currently work as an author at Sportish, which is a sports news website. I mainly cover sports news and I love writing about all aspects of the sport. I also have experience working as a broadcast journalist, so I have some great insights into how sport is reported and presented.