All it took was one fight to make Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor into two of the highest-paid athletes in the world.
Forbes released its annual list of the highest-paid athletes in the world for the past year and the two combat sports stars were in the top four despite having only one fight. Mayweather came in at No. 1, having made $285 million and McGregor at No. 4, having made $99 million.
The list takes into consideration the athlete?s salary and endorsement money given to him throughout the past 12 months. Mayweather and McGregor had just one fight in that timespan which was their lucrative boxing match last August. The fight was among the most-watched boxing matches in history as the fight reportedly did more than four million buys on pay-per-view. Mayweather won the fight against McGregor by 10th round TKO as it was the two-time UFC champion?s professional boxing debut. Neither fighter has fought since then as Mayweather retired after the fight and McGregor is still looking to make his return to the UFC.
This isn't the first time Mayweather has topped Forbes' list. He achieved the feat back in 2015, which is the year Mayweather had his megafight against Manny Pacquiao. At the time, that fight drew the highest buyrate in boxing history.
Three other boxers made the Forbes list: Canelo Alvarez at No. 15 ($44.5 million), unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua at No. 25 ($39 million) and unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin at No. 72 ($25 million).
The full list, which includes athletes such as LeBron James, Lionel Messi and Roger Federer in the top 10, can be seen at this link.