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The former UFC champion made it to number 53 on Forbes’ list.
Yesterday Forbes’ released their 2020 list of ‘The World’s Highest-Paid Celebrities’ featuring former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor in the 53rd spot.
According to Forbes’ McGregor’s 2020 earnings stands at $48 million. The 32-year-old’s income is broken down as: $32 m from salary/winnings and $16 m from endorsements. His sponsors are listed as Electronic Arts, Reebok and Wynn Resorts. His Forbes’ profile makes no mention of McGregor’s Proper 12 Whiskey line.
At 53 in the list McGregor finds himself higher placed than some of the biggest stars in boxing and mainstream team sports. Directly below McGregor are NBA players James Harden (54th/$47.8 m) and Giannis Antetokoumpou (55th/$47.6 m), Further down the list are heavyweight boxing champions Anthony Joshua (57th/$47 m) and Deontay Wilder (59th/$46.5 m),
Topping the list are two Kardashian connected stars. Kylie Jenner, make-up line owner and half sister to Kim Kardashian, holds the number 1 position with an income of $590 m. Second is her brother-in-law Kanye West with an income of $170 m. The remainder of the top 10 includes athletes Roger Federer, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, and LeBron James, actor—and former wrestler—Dwayne Johnson, and media stars Howard Stern and Tyler Perry.
Earlier this year McGregor was placed 16th on Forbes’ highest-paid athletes list.
McGreogr’s highly paid 2020 comes off the back of just one Octagon appearance. On January 18 he beat Donald Cerrone by quick TKO, at welterweight, in the main event of UFC 246. He announced his retirement from the sport a few months later.
The Cerrone fight was McGregor’s first, and only, time stepping back into the cage since his 2018 defeat—by submission—to UFC lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov.
McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov came a year after McGregor’s boxing spectacle opposite Floyd Mayweather Jr. McGregor lost his pro boxing debut by TKO, but took home the biggest pay cheque of his career.
Since 2017 McGregor has been embroiled in a number of controversies. These include the infamous dolly incident at the UFC 223 media day, driving offenses, a criminal mischief charge and an assault in a Dublin pub. Earlier this year McGregor denied reports from the New York Times that he was being investigated in connection to two alleged incidents of sexual assault.
It remains to be seen if McGregor’s current retirement from MMA will stick. In recent months he has hinted at a potential return to boxing and a contest versus Manny Pacquaio. That seems unlikely, but you can’t rule anything out in the fight game.