Conor McGregor might have not even made the top ten of this year's richest athletes list, but the UFC star is still one of the highest-earning fighters in the world.
Former two-weight champion McGregor topped 2021's list after earning a whopping £145m but his absence from fighting has dropped him No.22 in this year's list. McGregor, who is worth an estimated £135m, has not fought since he was beaten by Dustin Poirier and left with a broken leg in their trilogy fight last summer.
The Irishman's fall in the rankings comes not only because he has been unable to fight, but also because a large portion of his earnings last year come from the majority sale of his stake in Proper 12 whiskey to Proximo Spirits.
McGregor sold his majority stake in the company for £120m, meaning just £25m of his earnings for that year came from fighting. This is reinforced by reports that McGregor makes around £20m for each fight, whilst also usually banking around £5m for his share in pay-per-view sales.
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The UFC star flaunted his wealth earlier this year after claiming he wanted to " explore " the opportunity of buying Premier League side Chelsea for a whopping £3bn, stating it could have banked him It came less than year after he teased the idea of buying his boyhood club Manchester United.
McGregor has earned tens of millions for his UFC success, but the biggest payday of his career came when he fought ring legend Floyd Mayweather five years ago. 'Notorious' was stopped in the 10th round by Mayweather as he earned £80m for the fight, which sold 4.3m PPV buys.
In this year's list, Sportico reported that McGregor made £26m from his trilogy fight with Poirier. The fight sold a massive 1.8m buys on PPV, making it the second-highest selling event in UFC history.
McGregor also earned £16m in endorsements, likely from his shares in TIDL Sport spray and Proper 12. He will look to push his name back up in the rankings in next year's list as he gears up for his first fight since breaking his leg.
In the hopes of becoming the first-ever three-weight UFC champion, McGregor has called out welterweight champion Kamaru Usman for his comeback fight. The pound-for-pound No.1, who is pencilled in to fight Leon Edwards next, has laughed off McGregor's call out whilst vowing to "murder" him if they meet in the octagon.
