Den irländske MMA-stjärnan och forne dubbelmästaren Conor McGregor har ännu en gång lyckats ta sig in på Forbes lista över de högst betalda atleterna 2018.
Denna gången hamnade han inte på topp 10, men istället på plats 21 med 47 miljoner dollar (443 716 190 kr). Enligt Forbes tjänar McGregor och andra sportstjärnor nu mer än någonsin.
Det här kunde man läsa på Forbes:
Elite athletes are earning more than ever thanks to soaring salaries driven by ever-richer TV contracts. The cutoff to crack the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes is $25 million this year, compared with $17.3 million five years ago.
Forbes has tracked the leading earners in sports for three decades, and only seven athletes have landed in the top spot since 1990 (Tiger Woods holds the record with 12 times at No. 1). Global soccer icon Lionel Messi adds an eighth name to the roll call this year and, after longtime rival Cristiano Ronaldo, is only the second soccer player to rank first.
The top 100 spans 10 sports and includes athletes from 25 countries. Their $4 billion in combined earnings from prize money, salaries and endorsements between June 2018 and June 2019 is up 5% from last year, when Floyd Mayweather was first with $285 million.
Forbes sammanfattade även McGregors högsta inkomster under 2018, vilket inte helt förvånande inkluderade UFC 229 mot lättviktsmästaren Khabib Nurmagomedov.
- In October, McGregor returned to the UFC octagon for the first time in nearly two years; he lost by submission to Khabib Nurmagomedov.
- Prior to his return fight at UFC 229, McGregor renewed his sponsorship deal with Reebok, which pays the Irishman some $5 million per year.
- McGregor got a base salary of $3 million for the his UFC 229 bout, but a record 2.4 million PPV buys helped push his total fight pay over $30 million.
- McGregor founded Irish whiskey distiller Proper No. Twelve, which launched last year and has since sold more than 200,000 cases.
UFC 229 var senast gången McGregor gick match. Det har under en tid pratats om att han kan få en returmatch mot Khabib, men de ryske mästaren är nu bokad mot Dustin Poirier för ett möte i september i Abu Dhabi under UFC 242.
