The 20 highest -paid athletes in the world
They don’t call him “Money” for nothing. Forbes released it’s 2015 rendition of the top-100 highest-paid athletes in the world recently, and for the second straight year boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. topped the list, earning just $13 million less than the next three athletes combined. Mayweather made over $200 million from his historic fight against Manny Pacquiao. Thanks to the fight generating nearly $600 million worth of revenue, Pacquiao actually comes in at second, albeit a distant second, on the list. He was the 11th highest-paid athlete in 2014.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Roger Federer finished 3rd, 4th, and 5th respectively in the rankings that include both earnings and endorsements. This means that not a single player from the three major sports in the United States – football, basketball, and baseball – cracked the top-5.
LeBron James is the highest-paid basketball player at 6th, trailing Federer by just $2.2 million. Ben Roethlisberger, surprisingly, is the highestpaid football player, coming in at 11. And Jon Lester is the highest paid baseball player at 19.
For the sixth straight year, tennis star Maria Sharapova ($29.7 million) ranks as the highest-paid female athlete, finishing 26th overall. 1. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (boxing): $300 million 2. Manny Pacquiao (boxing): $160 million 3. Cristiano Ronaldo (soccer): $79.6 million 4. Lionel Messi (soccer): $73.8 million 5. Roger Federer (tennis): $67 million 6. LeBron James (basketball): $64.8 million 7. Kevin Durant (basketball): $54.1 million 8. Phil Mickelson (golf): $50.8 million 9. Tiger Woods (golf): $50.6 million 10. Kobe Bryant (basketball): $49.5 million 11. Ben Roethlisberger (football): $48.9 million 12. Rory McIlroy (golf): $48.3 million 13. Novak Djokovic (tennis): $48.2 million 14. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (soccer): $39.1 million 15. Lewis Hamilton (racing): $39 million 16. Ndamukong Suh (football): $38.6 million 17. Fernando Alonso (racing): $35.5 million 18. Gareth Bale (soccer): $35 million 19. Jon Lester (baseball): $34.1 million 20. Derrick Rose (basketball): $33.9 million