It wasn’t nearly as lucrative as 2017, but Conor McGregor nonetheless did quite well for himself financially this past year.
Lionel Messi was the top earning athlete with $127 million ($92 million salary, $35 million endorsements), while Canelo Alvarez was the highest paid competitor ($92 million salary, $2 million endorsements) in the combat sports realm and No. 4 overall.
McGregor earned a disclosed $3 million for his UFC 229 bout with Khabib Nurmagomedov, but that doesn’t account for pay-per-view points, as the event reportedly did a record 2.4 million buys. His sponsorship deal with Reebok was renewed prior to UFC 229 and is worth $5 million per year, according to Forbes.
In addition to Reebok, the former UFC champ counted Beats Electronics, Burger King, Monster, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Budweiser among his sponsors in 2018. Forbes also claims that he sold more than 200,000 cases of his Proper 12 whiskey.
On last year’s list, McGregor earned a reported $99 million, which was largely due to his “Money Fight” boxing match with Floyd Mayweather in August 2017.