Floyd Mayweather has been in the news a lot lately after his victory over Manny Pacquiao, which many were disputing and were accusing Mayweather of setting up the fight in his favor. In the end, he did get the official victory, so not much else matters – but fans of the sport are still actively discussing how the fight went down, with many people seemingly convinced that Mayweather wasn’t that deserving of his title.
Meanwhile, Forbes have released their report on the highest paid athletes for 2015, and Mayweather is on top of that list by a large margin. During the year, he has earned around $300 million, nearly twice as much as Manny Pacquiao who is in the second spot with $160 million.
Next up we have some football stars – Christiano Ronaldo is ranked third with $79.6 million, followed by Lionel Messi in the fourth spot. It should be noted that this ranking is actually pretty comprehensive in its analysis, as Forbes have tried to take everything possible into account. They’re considering salaries, endorsements, bonuses and prize money, as well as appearance fees.
Of course, with most endorsement deals being under an NDA, Forbes had to go with an estimate rather than concrete figures, but we trust that they would know how to get an accurate estimate, or at least as close as possible to one. So far, nobody has been disputing the rankings, and most financial experts seem to agree that the chart paints a pretty accurate picture of the current situation.
Tiger Woods is notably still on the list, even though he’s fallen down a little bit. He used to be highly popular partly due to his serious earning potential, and he is still in the top 10 despite his income starting to go down slightly over the years. For 2015, he’s been reported at $50.6 million worth of endorsements, but at the same time his actual winnings have been much lower – around $600,000. He has been suffering from an injury that has affected his form, so it’s pretty obvious why his prize earnings would go down like that.
Roy McIlroy was also present on the chart, at spot 12, after he scored two important victories over the last 12 months, which have secured a nice $48.3 million for him. At the 15th spot, we have Lewis Hamilton, prominent Formula 1 racer, with a reported $39 million total – but it’s expected that the racer might go up a bit next year as he’s expected to benefit quite seriously from a new contract.