MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova and MMA fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov were included into the top-100 of world’s most popular athletes, comprised by the ESPN sports TV channel.

30-year-old Nurmagomedov was ranked 15th in ESPN World Fame 100. Hailing from Russia’s North Caucasus Region of Dagestan, he was the first Russian to win the UFC champion title during the fight against his US opponent Al Iaquinta last April. He defended the title on October 7, 2018, defeating Ireland’s Conor McGregor during the UFC 229 tournament in Las Vegas. Nurmagomedov maintains an unblemished record of 27 wins in all his 27 MMA fights.

31-year-old Sharapova holds the 37th place. She is Russia’s most decorated tennis player having won a total of five Grand Slam tournaments, namely the Australian Open in 2008, the French Open in 2012 and 2014, Wimbledon in 2004 and the US Open in 2006. She also clinched the silver in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and was the 2008 Federations Cup champion. Sharapova is currently ranked 29th in the Women Tennis Association (WTA) ranking.

The top spot in ESPN’s Fourth Annual Ranking of the Biggest Names in Sports is held by Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, followed by NBA star LeBron James and Argentinean footballer Lionel Messi.

ESPN has been compiling its World Fame 100 ranking since 2016. A group of the company’s analysts uses their own formula to identify the 100 most famous athletes in the world, which is based on three factors: search score (how often an athlete’s name is searched on Google), engrossment figures and the number of social media followers.