Anderson Silva, Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey have landed on ESPN’s top 100 list of most famous sports stars. The second-edition of the list is based on endorsements, social media and google search popularity.
The UFC Lightweight champion comes in at number 25. The article lists McGregor as having $4 million in endorsements. This might be more considering he just signed a deal with Beats By Dre.
The former women’s Bantamweight champion comes in at number 16. She has double the endorsement dollars than McGregor with $8 million. Rousey is ranked higher than the likes of Serena Williams and Tom Brady.
Silva comes in at 39 and has as many endorsement dollars as Rousey with $8 million. This is likely due to the popularity with Brazilian fans.
As for boxers, Manny Pacquiao (59 – $2.5M endorsements) and Canelo Alvarez (89 – $1.5M in endorsements)
Soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, NBA player LeBron James and Lionel Messi are the top 3 on the ESPN lists which ranked the most popular sports stars based on endorsements and social media followers.
Payout Perspectrive:
Despite losing her one fight last year, Rousey moved up on this list. So did McGregor. Silva was unranked last year but jumped up to 39. Pacquiao and Alvarez dropped down on the list. No Floyd Mayweather here since he rarely does endorsements. What the list shows for MMA (and boxing for that matter) is that the most popular stars of the sport are leaving. Rousey should be retired and the same is likely true for Silva. McGregor is chasing Mayweather and if he fights Floyd, it will be hard to get him back into the Octagon to fight for less money. The list shows that the UFC must look to build new stars to take over for the most famous right now.
As for boxing, the decrease in Alvarez’s ranking is odd considering he is heading into a huge year and is the only one of the combat sports stars on this list that has a certain future in his sport beyond this year. One might expect someone like Anthony Joshua appearing high on this list next year.
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