After winning his megabuck bout with Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, undefeated American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. maintained his stature as the world’s highest-paid athlete according to the annual list of ESPN.
In a report by the international sports network, Mayweather was said to have earned $6 million per minute during his record-breaking welterweight unification fight against Pacquiao last May 2 (May 3, Manila time), bolstering his earnings to the top of the list.
READ: Floyd Mayweather is ESPN’s top-paid athlete
“Total revenue from the long-anticipated fight could be north of $500 million — roughly equal to the 2014 gross domestic product of Tonga — with Mayweather clearing somewhere around $250 million,” ESPN said. Mayweather was said to have earned $73.5 million last year according to the same list.
Pacquiao landed on second place with $150 million. He was not on the ESPN list in 2014.
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Football superstars Lionel Messi of Barcelona and Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid came in third and fourth with $56.3 million and $50.2 million, respectively.
Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel ranked fifth after raking in $50 million.
Fellow league drivers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton took the sixth and eighth spots with payrolls amounting to $40 million and $31 million. Baseball pitcher Clayton Kershaw of the Major League of Baseball’s (MLB) Los Angeles Dodgers tied with Hamilton at eighth place.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, star forward of France’s Paris Saint-Germain at Ligue 1, is the seventh richest athlete after earning $35.1 M.
MLB’s Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers also made it to the top 10 with $28 million.
Baseball players dominated the rest of the top 25: Zack Greinke of the LA Dodgers (11th with $27 million), Josh Hamilton, Ryan Howard, and Cliff Lee of the Texas Rangers (13th with $25 million each), Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners (16th with $24.9 million), Albert Pujols of the LA Angels, Robinson Cano of the Seattle Mariners, and Texas Rangers’ Prince Filder (17th with $24 million each), Cole Hamels of the Philadelphia Phillies (20th with $23.5 million), Mark Teixeira of the New York Yankees (24th with $23.1 million), and Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins and CC Sabathia of the New York Yankees (25th with $23 million).
Only two NBA athletes cracked the ESPN list, with Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers being the highest-paid basketball player (20th with $23.5 million). Joe Johnson of the Brooklyn Nets ranked 23rd after earning $23.2 million.
ESPN’s figures were based solely on recent gross salaries, excluding sponsorships and endorsements. IDL