Media Forbes: Conor Mcgregor is #1 highest earning athlete beats out Messi

[Greg House]

Again, draws and elite fighters are not the same. Similar, and often overlapping, but very distinct. If Jones vs Ngannou was put on by a well heeled promter, it doesn monster buys. Just like if we did Silva or GSP and it was backed by another promoter. Fighters drive revenue for the UFC more so than the actual brand.

Finally, just like I mentioned if it was the UFC brnd that drove views, then every PPV would do similar numbers. But we know that isn't the case

You said Rumble is not a draw but Ngannou is? How come? Similar numbers on ppvs there. Ngannou is currently a star thanks to the UFC, Minakov is a nobody and has the talent to be a UFC champ. It's not even about talent, is about being the top guy in the UFC. If Ngannou losses the belt and signs with Bellator, he will draw as little as Rumble did last week.

And like I said, the events don't do the "same numbers" because there are big names in the UFC but they are only big names in the UFC. If they cut Masvidal to Bellator, he will be as relevant as as Rory McDonald was. We have seen this over and over. Their "names" don't carry viewers to other proomotions.

It's more examples of the same. Fans don't care about watching the fighters, they care about watching the UFC

 

[Notoriouslefthand]

This makes haters really mad

 

[JKS]

Thank Floyd for that!

Floyd founded Proper 12?? I think Floyd can thank Conor for making him a big payday after that disaster of a 400K PPV buy vs Andre Berto where Floyd made 32 mill plus a measly PPV.

 

[avenue94]

You said Rumble is not a draw but Ngannou is? How come? Similar numbers on ppvs there. Ngannou is currently a star thanks to the UFC, Minakov is a nobody and has the talent to be a UFC champ. It's not even about talent, is about being the top guy in the UFC. If Ngannou losses the belt and signs with Bellator, he will draw as little as Rumble did last week.

And like I said, the events don't do the "same numbers" because there are big names in the UFC but they are only big names in the UFC. If they cut Masvidal to Bellator, he will be as relevant as as Rory McDonald was. We have seen this over and over. Their "names" don't carry viewers to other proomotions.

It's more examples of the same. Fans don't care about watching the fighters, they care about watching the UFC

Ngannou is a heavyweight, that inherently makes him a bigger draw. Blame the dumb public. He's on his way to being a draw because he kept knocking guys out, then the UFC started pushing him.

And if you think Mas on his own doesn't do a big freakishly fight that pulls in a lot of money, you vastly overestimate the sophistication of the public.

 

[INoHespectChael]

Yeah sure, Conor has other earnings aside from fighting. I don't know if Messi or CR run businesses or being rich just by playing football with sponsorships at the side.

The most famous pro athletes make way more from endorsements than they do from competing a lot of the time.

I'm sure they all have their own investments. Canelo said he makes 1.6 mil a month from investments.

 

[cmw43]

What big names left the UFC and are with other promotions now? I agree that the UFC has, to its credit and probably the detriment of the over all sport, built up a good amount of brand power. But people overblown it. Conor or Jones do big numbers with or without the UFC. Less, but still massive

Only Conor can do big numbers without the UFC.

No one cares about these guys once they're not under the UFC org.

 

[mjfan23]

Conor> ufc

 

[JonJonesNeedle]

Regardless if you like him or hate him, it's a very impressive feat. He probably makes more than pretty much the entire UFC roster combined.

But tbf it looks like a big portion is due the sale of his Whiskey and not MMA itself. Does Forbes count the business value of businesses owned by other athletes like Lebron/Messi/Ronaldo?
Bcuz if we are talking straight up sport money, I would think one of the 3 noted above would be ranked 1.

 

[TheRealMikeson]

Loved when broke, hated when loaded.

That’s not the reason I dislike this man. Money doesn’t influence me in anyway when liking or disliking someone.

 

[kflo]

It likely would do decently. Worse than UFC, but still very profitable. There's a reason the UFC hasn't just cut or released Jones, even though they've had plenty of opportunities to.

again, profitable for the ufc doesn't mean he'd do big numbers for bellator. the card i linked to probably would have done 5x better under a ufc banner.

Yeah, UFC doesn't make 70 bucks off of each PPV. They were getting half or a bit more pre-ESPN deal, for example. A Conor PPV does huge revenue for the UFC, and he gets a good chunk of that money, but there's not much reason to think he's getting a third or half of that money.

Bottom line, Forbes has sucked as estimating Conor's purses in the past, and there isn't much reason to think they suddenly are accurate. And it's not like the UFC or Conor are going to be like, well, actually, he made less than that.

having the ppv go through the espn paywall takes the cable provider out of the equation. so pre-espn deal isn't that relevant. obviously they split with espn now though.

i'm not sure when forbes estimated conor's purses before or how we know they were wrong.......

 

[SharpasaRazor]

If your a top athlete and wanna be top of these lists you can, if you don’t wanna be same goes. It’s all down to what you’re willing to have your PR feed Forbes, I think it’s been a goal for Conor for a long time to top this. He’s earned a wedge tho that’s for sure, if all the things you can call him out for making money isn’t one.

 

[Fergelmince]

Dak made a hundred mil while sitting on injured reserve, salute

And he's not even a top 10 NFL QB

 

[Gio]

He did passed Cristiano Ronaldo on the top spot, like he said way back after the two met each other. He didn't said it directly to him but he mentioned it in the video afaik. That's pretty amazing.

 

[TheComputerGuy]

Why do people believe everything they see on the internet. They have no idea how much he got from it selling. They just made up a number.

 

[Moro]

The Conor financial fans coming out of the woodworks yet again.

 

[kflo]

But Messi doesn't get brain damage and slurred speech problems by 40.

https:/bleacherreport.com/articles/2693047-brain-damage-cte-discovered-in-former-soccer-players-known-for-heading
https://globalsportmatters.com/heal...-about-cte-altering-the-way-soccer-is-played/

 

[kflo]

The Conor financial fans coming out of the woodworks yet again.

along with the conor avatars......

 

[avenue94]

Only Conor can do big numbers without the UFC.

No one cares about these guys once they're not under the UFC org.

Odd, if that were the case, the UFC would have already released Jones, he's not making money for them while he sits out, and he has bitched a lot. The UFC hasn't released draws in their prime. At any rate, wanna bet Anderson Silva makes a career high payday in his return to boxing? Or at least top 3 paydays for him?

 

[avenue94]

again, profitable for the ufc doesn't mean he'd do big numbers for bellator. the card i linked to probably would have done 5x better under a ufc banner.

Like I said, UFC better would do better numbers with a Jones card or card headlined by a draw than the identical card put on by Triller or Bellator or whatever promoter ponies up the money. But I doubt it does twice as money buys just because of the UFC logo (I mean this figuratively, not literally, since i know you're gonna nitpick on that lol). That would be balanced by the headliner liking have more leverage and getting a better cut of the event revenue.

having the ppv go through the espn paywall takes the cable provider out of the equation. so pre-espn deal isn't that relevant. obviously they split with espn now though.

I just use it because it's the simplest napkin math and the ESPN deal is murky and hard to decipher how much the UFC gets per event. Best guess, they are getting less money off a monster PPV but more off the generic ones that would normally only do 200k buys or whatever, with the end result being more money on an annual basis. Also since comparing the two eras is hard: flat fee plus split after certain point versus just a flat percentage on every buy.

i'm not sure when forbes estimated conor's purses before or how we know they were wrong.......

He's made the Forbes list of athletes a couple times. For example, they have his Cowboy fight listed as more than $30 million, which all but impossible given fighter pay that year and past trends and UFC EBITDA .

Or if you wanna an even more blatant example of Forbes being comically wrong for estimates, they had him earning $18 million combined for UFC 189, 194 and 196.
-His contract for 189 is public: 500k to show, 2.11 million LOA, 50k POTN.
-At any rate, the highest paid fighter in 2015 only made 8.5 million, and it wasn't even likely Conor. The only way McGregor could have made the Forbes figure is if he made over $10 million for UFC 196. But that's impossible given we know the most a UFC fighter ever made for a single fight through 2017 was $8 million.

So bottom line, Forbes' numbers are utter horseshit and way off.

 

[kflo]

Like I said, UFC better would do better numbers with a Jones card or card headlined by a draw than the identical card put on by Triller or Bellator or whatever promoter ponies up the money. But I doubt it does twice as money buys just because of the UFC logo (I mean this figuratively, not literally, since i know you're gonna nitpick on that lol). That would be balanced by the headliner liking have more leverage and getting a better cut of the event revenue.

like i said, and like you ignored, that bellator card would have done multiples more buys as a ufc card.

He's made the Forbes list of athletes a couple times. For example, they have his Cowboy fight listed as more than $30 million, which all but impossible given fighter pay that year and past trends and UFC EBITDA .

Or if you wanna an even more blatant example of Forbes being comically wrong for estimates, they had him earning $18 million combined for UFC 189, 194 and 196.
-His contract for 189 is public: 500k to show, 2.11 million LOA, 50k POTN.
-At any rate, the highest paid fighter in 2015 only made 8.5 million, and it wasn't even likely Conor. The only way McGregor could have made the Forbes figure is if he made over $10 million for UFC 196. But that's impossible given we know the most a UFC fighter ever made for a single fight through 2017 was $8 million.

So bottom line, Forbes' numbers are utter horseshit and way off.

as far as i know, conor's contract for 189 is not public. we know he got 500k to show, 50k potn, and 2.11m "discretionary bonus". as far as i can tell, there is no mention as to whether he got ppv points as well.