Irish UFC superstar Connor McGregor has topped Forbes’ list of highest-paid athletes for 2021, with a total earning of $180 million.
He was followed by world football’s biggest stars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, with $130 million and $120 million, respectively. NFL’s Dak Prescott and NBA superstar LeBron James complete the top five.
U.S. tennis star Naomi Osaka takes the women’s top spot and No. 12 in the overall ranking with $60 million, crushing the record she set for female athletes just a year ago, when she was No. 29 with $37.4 million.
According to Forbes, the top 10 athletes took home pretax gross earnings of nearly $1.05 billion in 2021, 28% more than last year and the top 50 athletes made nearly $2.8 billion, up 16% from last year.
1. Conor McGregor – Mixed Martial Arts – $180M
2. Lionel Messi – Football – $130M
3. Cristiano Ronaldo – Football – $120M
4. Dak Prescott – American Football – $107.5M
5. LeBron James – Basketball – $96.5M
6. Neymar – Football – $95M
7. Roger Federer – Tennis – $90M
8. Lewis Hamilton – Formula 1 – $82M
9. Tom Brady – Americal Football – $76M
10. Kevin Durant – Basketball – $75M
