Floyd Mayweather Tops Forbes’ Highest Paid-Athletes 2015 List

In the least surprising news of the 21st century, Floyd Mayweather topped Forbes’  highest-paid athletes list.

Forbes’ Highest Paid-Athletes 2015 List

Forbes released their annual highest-paid athletes list and the boxers from the bout of the century topped the list. Of course, Floyd Mayweather took the bigger cut from the fight and therefore remained at the top of this annual list. Out of roughly $400 million, Floyd got 60 percent, which amounted to about $285 million, according to Forbes. And add $15 million in endorsements and he was estimated to make $300 million over the last year.

On the other side of the ring, Manny Pacquiao took in roughly $160 million over the last year, making $23 million off November’s Chris Algieri fight, $125 million from the Mayweather payday and another $12 million from endorsements. Both fighters torched the previous athlete revenue record, which was Tiger Woods’ $115 million in 2008.

As for the rest of the top five, international stars filled out the list: Real Madrid’s Cristian Ronaldo ($79.6 million), Barcelona’s Lionel Messi ($73.8 million) and Roger Federer ($67 million). Now, spots five to ten were surprisingly filled with NBA and golf athletes. With the former, LeBron James came in at sixth with $64.8 million, Kevin Durant at seventh with $54.1 million and Kobe Bryant at tenth with $49.5 million. More surprisingly were the eighth and ninth athletes, Phil Mickelson ($50.8 million) and Tiger Woods ($50 million), who both earned a significant portion of their revenue from endorsements.

With this said, there were several sports and stars missing from this top ten list. The first NFL player to appear on the highest-paid athletes countdown was Ben Roethlisberger at eleventh for earning $48.9 million. Other key names from the NFL included Ndamukong Suh at 16th, J.J. Watt at 29th, Peyton Manning at 32nd and even Carson Palmer at 27th.

The closest baseball player to the top of the list was Jon Lester at 19th with $34.1 million. Next, Robinson Cano was at 30th with $27.6 million and Clayton Kershaw rounded out the top-34 with $26.9 million.

For the rest of the list, head over to Forbes’ article.

Article by Anthony Falco