Conor McGregor: UFC champ and MMA superstar, household name, and fierce Irishman who has toppled some of the greats in the ring. With a career spanning 15 years, coming in as huge drawcard for pay per view fights, and topping Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-paid athletes 2021, McGregor sure pulls some serious coin – $180 million in 2021 to be exact.

With all that being said, you may be surprised to hear that McGregor has only had four UFC fights since 2016. His place on the list comes mainly from selling his share in the whiskey brand Proper No. Twelve – for a cool $150 million. Across his money-making career, it’s been a case of sheer talent, combined with business savvy and brand deals that have got him where he is today. 

How could you make $180 million? Let’s take a closer look…

Work at KFC, Missouri for 17,964,071 hours

Got a few lifetimes to spare? How about working at a KFC in Missouri for almost 18 million hours? With the average wage at $10.02 an hour, you would have to work here approximately 200 lifetimes if you take into account the average hours worked over a lifetime of 90,000.

That being said, as least you’d be able to eat a lot of chicken.

Fun fact: McGregor once said, “KFC doesn’t have chicken out. They don’t have, they can’t say chicken in their thing anymore, because it’s not chicken. Now, it’s just… you wouldn’t see Kentucky Fried Chicken. It’s just KFC. It’s still delicious, though.” Just for the record, he is incorrect – it’s real chicken.

Win big at an online gambling site

For those fancying their luck over at the (online) tables, you might try putting some dollars down and seeing if the odds might be in your favour. As for McGregor… well, it wasn’t luck that amassed his fortune. It’s not as if he found a no deposit site like NoDepositDaily, wagered $1 and won over a $100 Million of the spin of a wheel.

Fun fact: Conor McGregor owns a $620,000 Astronomia Casino watch. The watch is dubbed ‘Casino’ as it features a very cool looking roulette style face and diamond spinning head. This glitzy timepiece is also owned by rapper Drake.

Sell that iconic painting you have lying around the house

Do you have an iconic painting lying around the house? Earlier this year, Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn – one of the very famous Marilyn Monroe paintings by perhaps the world’s most famous Pop Art artist – sold for around $195 million. Sure, that painting you have lying around the house is probably a replica, but who knows…

Fun fact: Floyd Mayweather, who famously beat McGregor in “The Money Fight” back in 2017, now has a gigantic painting of Conor hanging in his home. This amusing decoration was reportedly funded by some of Mayweather’s earnings from the match.

Or sell… that hotel that you own?

While it’s unusual that houses sell for hundreds of millions, other real estate can carry that sort of price-tag – like the Intercontinental Hotel in Double Bay, Sydney, Australia. Nestled in the heart of the affluent Eastern suburbs, the property boasts a rooftop hotel that looks out over the bay, conference facilities, and 140 rooms. The boutique property has been a staple for business people looking for luxury accommodation for short stays. It’s unlikely you have a luxury hotel lying around but who knows.

Fun fact: McGregor stayed at the W Hotel for Fight Island in Abu Dhabi in 2021 – a match against Dustin Poirier which he ultimately lost. Fight island is actually Yas Island, one of Abu Dhabi’s premier leisure islands that covers just 25sq km and also hosts the Formula 1.

Cash in your Bitcoin you bought in 12 years ago

Here’s one that may be a little more realistic – do you have Bitcoin still lying around in a wallet that you have forgotten about for the past 10 years? Way back in 2010, you could pick up a whole Bitcoin for 90c. Now? It’s sitting at around the $30k mark, and that’s after a crypto crash, even. With some quick math, you can see that if you’d snapped up 6000 Bitcoin in 2010 for the princely sum of $5400 – you’d now be able to cash it in for $180m. 

Fun fact: UFC star Jake Paul, who is now one of the most talked about sportsmen in the space, has amassed a collection of crypto, NFTs, and metaverse investments. This fighter became famous through family association as a YouTube star.

If you want the mega-bucks like Conor, you might just have to take a chance, make a risky investment, hope that your family becomes famous, or just hustle, hustle, hustle…