Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin has accomplished a ton in his 14 year career, but he’s not quite Russia’s biggest athlete.
The 34-year-old was tabbed by Forbes Russia as the country’s second most successful athlete behind UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. The latter is fresh off of his UFC 229 victory over Conor McGregor from last October and clocked in a net on the 2019 chart at $11.5 million. Forbes also took his social media following into account, which has reached 15.6 million on Instagram. Ovi sits well below at 1.4.
It’s worth noting that with endorsements, Ovechkin is the most commercially successful hockey player, earning $14.5 million including revenue from Papa Johns, Nike, Beats and CCM. Forbes Russia also ranked Ovechkin third in its 40 under 40 Russian star rankings behind Khabib and TV star Olga Buzova. The list takes into account revenue, media mentions and social networks mentions
Nurmagomedov’s fight with McGregor earned a whopping $2.4 million paper-view buys, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see his number so high. Ovechkin is still sitting pretty in second so we’re sure he’s not too upset over being second in the athletic department.
(H/T NBC Sports Washington)
