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Floyd Mayweather Jr v Conor McGregor

Source: Stephen McCarthy / Getty

Surprise, surprise, the king is back!

Combat sports superstar Conor McGregor came in as No. 1 on Forbes’ 2021 list of athletes who earned the most money over the past twelve months. “The Notorious One” made the list three years before, when he faced off against undefeated welterweight champ Floyd Mayweather in what was billed as “The Money Fight,” but landed at the No. 4 spot. And although he had only two fights from 2019 through January 2021 (with the latter resulting in a TKO loss against Dustin Poirier), it was McGregor’s sale of his stake in the Proper Twelve whiskey brand that netted him the bulk of his earnings with $150 million.

Six of the names from 2020’s list had a repeat year, and they almost unsurprisingly belonged to two of three most globally watched sports today in soccer and basketball. Furthermore, this was the first time four athletes broke the $100M mark, which is notable when considering the financial hurt that sports faced in a pandemic-stricken world.

Here is the breakdown of how much was earned by this past year’s biggest moneymaking athletes:

1. Conor McGregor — MMA, $180 million

2. Lionel Messi — Soccer, $130 million

3. Cristiano Ronaldo — Soccer, $120 million

4. Dak Prescott — Football, $107.5 million

5. LeBron James — Basketball, $96.5 million

6. Neymar — Soccer, $95 million

7. Roger Federer — Tennis, $90 million

8. Lewis Hamilton — Motorsports, $82 million

9. Tom Brady — Football, $76 million

10. Kevin Durant — Basketball, $75 million

Check out the following link to learn more about how they earned their megabucks and see how these names fared against their predecessors: click here.

LeBron James, Conor McGregor & More Reign Supreme as Forbes Magazine’s Highest-Paid Athletes In the World  was originally published on cassiuslife.com