Conor McGregor wasn’t visited COVID or a Dustin Poirier loss, ’cause the UFC super star was the world’s highest-earning athlete in 2020 … supposedly raking in $180 MILLION!!

The 32-year-old earned a massive $22 million for his UFC 252 2nd-round TKO loss to Diamond, however according to Forbes yearly list of the World’s Highest-Paid Professional Athletes … it was the scotch cash that brought McGregor to the leading area on the list.

Conor earned $158 million outside the Octagon … and a frustrating bulk of that money originated from his sale of Appropriate 12 Irish Bourbon.

This marks the very first time McGregor — regularly among the highest-paid professional athletes — has actually topped the list.

In 2018, The Notorious came in fourth … making $99 million — mostly from his superfight with Floyd Mayweather.

Mentioning Cash Mayweather … Floyd — who didn’t battle in 2020 — stopped working to make the list.

As far as the rest of the leading 10 … there are 3 global soccer gamers, 2 NBA gamers, 2 NFL QB’s, a race automobile motorist and a tennis gamer.

2️⃣ Lionel Messi $130 mil.
3️⃣ Cristiano Ronaldo $120 mil.
4️⃣ Dak Prescott $107.5 mil.
5️⃣ LeBron James $96.5 mil.
6️⃣ Neymar $95 mil.
7️⃣ Roger Federer $90 mil.
8️⃣ Lewis Hamilton $82 mil.
9️⃣ Tom Brady $76.
🔟 Kevin Durant $75 mil.

What’s amusing … back in 2016, Conor joked with then highest-paid athlete, Ronaldo … informing the soccer super star that he was coming for the #1 area.

Took a couple of years … however, objective achieved!