Conor McGregor Became the Highest Paid Athlete in the World

How Conor McGregor Became the Highest Paid Athlete in the World

There’s a new number one on the Forbes List of the World’s highest paid athletes! Not Ronaldo or Messi, not Federer, Woods or Mayweather but an athlete of Mixed Martial Arts: Conor McGregor. 

 

How Conor McGregor Became the Highest Paid Athlete in the World?

 

There’s a new number one on the Forbes List of the World’s highest-paid athletes! Not Ronaldo or Messi, not Federer, Woods Mayweather but an athlete of Mixed Martial Arts: Conor McGregor. 

Overtaking Ronaldo is especially noteworthy because the two bantered about their position on the list back in 2016. McGregor already assured Ronaldo back then that he’d go past him on the rankings eventually. 

He kept his word despite having just one fighting this year’s period of Forbes - which he lost. McGregor still banked an estimated 22 million dollars in the ring. But that didn’t bring him to the top of the list. 

He made most of his money outside of the ring with one of Ireland’s most famous commodities: Whiskey. Welcome to Athletic Interest - this is the story of how Conor McGregor defied the odds and became the highest-paid athlete in the world.

 

Conor McGregor Early Life

Conor McGregor was born and raised in Dublin Ireland, in the working-class section of Crumlin. Besides playing soccer in his youth, he began boxing at a local club aged 12 to defend himself against bullies and raise his confidence. He showed his talent early on by winning Dublin Novice Championship during that time. In his later teen years, McGregor began training in the still little-known sport of mixed martial arts. 

He also worked as an apprentice plumber but left his job, despite his parents' objections, to pursue his dream of becoming a professional fighter. 

 

McGregor martial arts debut

At age 18, McGregor made his mixed martial arts debut and won via technical knockout in the first round.  

Following the fight, he turned professional and started making a name for himself in the Irish MMA scene. He had a solid 12-2 record, but what made him stand out was his entertaining character and self-promotion skills. McGregor was so renowned that when UFC president Dana. White made a trip to Dublin, he was bombarded at local pubs with requests by fans to sign Conor McGregor to a UFC contract. 

White himself recalls that he didn't even know who McGregor was at that point: But White listened to the fans and signed McGregor days later. The decision would impact the future of not only McGregor but also the whole of UFC. A few weeks later McGregor won his first UFC fight after just 67 seconds via technical knockout. 

He netted 60.000 dollars for that knockout, but the real money started to flow with his second fight when the UFC changed their broadcasting strategy. The company introduced the UFC Fight pass, its own digital streaming service. This allows the UFC to broadcast its own events from anywhere in the world, at any time of the day, without being regulated by the programming schedules of domestic broadcast partners. 

As the main event of a Fight Night in Dublin, McGregor quickly sold out the event of his second fight. But the enthusiasm was not only with his home crowd, but was also seen in the viewership numbers on Fight Pass. 

 Through their own streaming service, the UFC executives had all the analytics on who and where their viewers were. And the data was proof that McGregor had immense star power. 

 

Conor McGregor Career

McGregor became the biggest pay-per-view draw in MMA history, having headlined six out of the seven highest-selling UFC events. That doesn't only mean big money for the UFC, but also for McGregor himself. Because he gets a share of every Pass that is sold for one of his fights. The UFC is said to pay him at least 7 dollars for every pass sold. His most recent fight sold 1.6 million times, which is why he reportedly made more than 10 million dollars just from his pay per view share. Let's put that into perspective to other sports. 

Broadcasting income is almost always the biggest income stream for any sport. But in football or basketball, the revenue from selling broadcasting rights is distributed among a whole league with multiple teams and even more players.

 

 

McGregor, on the other hand, gets a share of the broadcasting money just for himself - because the whole show depends on him. 

The UFC realized the marketing potential of McGregor early on and sent him on a tour around the world. It was a promotional effort on a scale that the company had never done before. Even long-reigning champs didn’t get this kind of treatment. 

 

But most didn’t draw these kinds of crowds just to hear them talk. That promotional investment in McGregor made him an even bigger star and in turn, made the UFC very dependent on him as their best-selling asset. McGregor almost became bigger than the sport itself. As a result, McGregor felt that he could disregard UTC regulations. 

For example in regards to when to defend his title. He immediately abandoned the featherweight title he had just won in order to challenge for the lightweight title. An unprecedented leap for such a new champion- but the UFC readily agreed. He also started asking for far-fetched things that probably would have been denied in any other sport and if asked by any other athlete. The best example is his push for a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather. That idea seemed completely impossible at the beginning. 

 

First, because McGregor was locked in a deal with UFC. And secondly, Mayweather was unbeaten in 49fights, one of the greatest in a sport that McGregor himself had never even competed professionally. Against the odds, McGregor got what he wanted- and it paid off. 

The match drew 4.3 million PPV buys in NorthAmerica, the second-most in history. Despite McGregor getting a share from everyday-per-view for his fights, the vast majority of his 180M dollar income that put him on top of the Forbes list was made outside of the ring. 

 

Look at this comparison of the top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world. McGregor completely stands out, making more than 87% of his activities outside of his sport. 

What's behind that figure? How does McGregor manage to break the norm created by his fellow athlete millionaires like Cristiano Ronaldo or LeBron James? As with any other big athlete, sporting success also brings sponsorship money. 

Companies want to be associated with successful and famous athletes to transfer their image onto their product or brand image. 

Red Bull is the most popular example. McGregor has some sponsorship deals as well, but that's not his secret. Instead of using his name to promote the product of another company like Red Bull, he instead created his own drink: the Proper No. 

Twelve Irish-Whiskey, named after the Crumlin neighborhood in Dublins’ district number 12, in which he grew up. The company generated around 1 billion dollars in revenue just in its first year of existence. McGregor successfully bundled his image and publicity into the drink and created an extremely authentic brand. 

Proper No Twelve quickly became one of the most popular Irish whiskey brands in the world. So it was time to cash in. In April 2021, McGregor sold his majority stake in Proper Twelve and earned approx. 150M dollars (according to Forbes). If you've paid attention to the numbers, you'll realize that 150M of the total 180M that put him on top of the list came from one single equity sale. 

 

That also means that it is very unlikely that McGregor will defend his title of a highest-paid athlete in the future. But he managed to climb on top of the distance, just as he predicted to Cristiano Ronaldo a couple of years ago. 

That feat was probably only possible in a relatively young sport like the UFC, that focuses more on the entertainment and show elements than the performance and regulatory side of the sport. It is unlikely that organizations like FIFA or the NBA will ever become so dependable on one athlete as the UFC has become with McGregor. 

The rise of UFC and McGregor are strongly interlinked. That might be a reason why the UFC hasn't really tried to replicate their promotional push for McGregor with any other fighter. They would now rather spend their time, energy, and money on building multiple fighters who bring in much smaller paydays but are much easier to manage.

But that shouldn’t detract from the fact that McGregor has achieved unprecedented success in his sport and proved great instinct in the business world. 

Although UFC might be dependent on McGregor, they probably don't mind the increase in pay-per-view prices that every McGregor fight brings. 

Despite all the trouble he might carry with him, McGregor means the money in the bank. 

If this got you hyped for the next McGregor fight, but there’s no broadcast in your country, you should check out Nord VPN.

Nord VPN lets you easily change your virtual location with a click, which allows you to watch events not available in your country. Whether you want to watch NBA, football, formula 1. With NordVPN, you never miss your favorite sport - even when abroad. From the right location, you might even find streaming platforms at a lower price or sport-events for free. It takes just a click. Open the map, click on a location, and you'll connect in seconds. It’s that easy. And you can use it on 6 devices - even on your smart TV. Go to NordVPN.com/AthleticInterest to get a 2-year plan plus a bonus gift with a huge discount! It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee!