McGregor, Rousey make more money per second than every athlete but Mayweather & Pacquiao

When it comes to earnings figures, the UFC’s two biggest stars have a tight grip on the per-second income market.

We all know that UFC fighters, and more broadly MMA fighters, aren’t making the same kind of moola that their more established sporting compatriots are, at least not on the regular. But at least two fighters who make their living inside the Octagon are bucking that trend and making enough cash to hit the top 3 highest paid athletes in the world… at least if you go by a per-second basis.

ExpertMarket.com recently ran the numbers, using a Forbes Magazine report on salary numbers along with a few extra stats to get a look at how much money the top male and female athletes in the world are making in relationship to their time spent on the field/pitch/court/ring. Obviously, Floyd Mayweather topped the list, but numbers two and three were something of a surprise:

Admittedly, it’s a bit of a mystery as to just where the numbers on Conor McGregor came from, as he wasn’t part of the initial Forbes report and the numbers here don’t seem to reflect anything easily verifiable from other articles. But considering we do know that his most recent contract was set up to put him over the $100 million mark, it’s safe to assume his per-second earnings for that money are going to be pretty high.

As an added note, once you throw endorsements into the mix, Usain Bolt conquers all with ease, taking home $132,075 per second for his athletic endeavors.

UPDATE: As our own John S. Nash pointed out, this list is missing some Manny Pacquiao numbers. By his calculations, Pacquiao made $160 million for 2160 seconds worth of work last year, clocking him in at $74k per second and dropping everyone down a notch on the list above.