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With $300 Million Haul, Floyd Mayweather Tops 2015 List Of The World's Highest-Paid Athletes
Kurt BadenhausenForbes Staff
I write about the business of sports.
Floyd Mayweather has had a career full of monster paydays, with cumulative earnings of $420 million entering 2015. But Mayweather still craved the score of a lifetime. "Even from day one when I was with Bob Arum, I said I wanted to work extremely hard to get to a certain point in my career, which is to get to a point to be the first fighter to ever make nine figures in one night," Mayweather said ahead of his May 2 fight with Manny Pacquiao. Mission accomplished for the man they call Money.
Mayweather received a $100 million check on fight night, but the real payoff came after the revenue figures were tallied up. The fight was a dud in many people's eyes, but it smashed every financial record in boxing, including pay-per-view buys (4.4 million and climbing), total gate ($73 million) and sponsorships ($13 million). The fight is expected to gross $600 million once everything is counted. The fighters and their promotion companies will divvy up roughly $400 million, with Mayweather owed a 60% cut. Factor in his September 2014 bout against Marcos Maidana, and Mayweather earned $285 million over the last 12 months in the ring. "Floyd Mayweather just pulled off the biggest score in the history of sports and entertainment," says Leonard Ellerbe, who heads Mayweather Promotions.
Gallery: The World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes 2015
Mayweather has shunned endorsement deals in the past, but he inked agreements with Hublot, FanDuel and Burger King ahead of the Pacquiao fight. The sponsorship deals and other earnings outside the ring from things like his TMT merchandise (short for The Money Team ) added $15 million to Mayweather's historic year.
This is the third time in four years that Mayweather has ranked as the world's highest-paid athlete (Tiger Woods was the highest-paid in the 12 other years since 2001). Mayweather's $300 million year shatters the record for athlete earnings, which was previously held by Tiger Woods, who banked $115 million in 2008 ($125 million adjusted for inflation). If Mayweather worked on Wall Street, he would have ranked 14th among the top-earning hedge fund managers in 2014. (See "Mayweather and Pacquiao Produce The First $600 Million Night In The History Of Sports")
The Pacquiao fight marked the fifth bout in the blockbuster 30-month, six-fight deal Mayweather signed with Showtime in 2013. Mayweather, whose record now stands at 48-0, plans to fight in September to satisfy his contract and then ride off into the sunset.
Pacquiao also scored the payday of a lifetime, vaulting him to second place among the world's highest-paid athletes at $160 million (he ranked 11th last year). Pacquiao's $125 million haul for the Mayweather bout was four times his previous high for a boxing match. Pacman also tallied $23 million for his November fight against Chris Algieri that took place in the gambling mecca of Macau, China.
Pacquiao boosted his income further through endorsement deals with Nike, Foot Locker , Wonderful Pistachios and Nestle's Butterfinger, plus a handful in the Philippines. The pugilist and Philippine congressman is sidelined for the rest of 2015 after shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff. His promoter Bob Arum is aiming to have Pacquiao climb back in the ring in Dubai or Abu Dhabi in March or April 2016.
Full list: The World's Highest-Paid Athletes
Our earnings figures include all salaries, prize money and bonuses paid out between June 1, 2014, and June 1, 2015. Endorsement incomes are an estimate of sponsorship deals, appearance fees and licensing fees for the 12 months through June 1 based on conversations with dozens of industry insiders. We do not deduct for taxes or agents' fees and we do not include investment income.
The 100 highest-paid athletes made $3.2 billion in total over the last 12 months, up 17% from the prior year. The entry point jumped to $18.8 million from $17.3 million with Houston Rockets guard James Harden grabbing the last spot. The top 100 includes athletes from 10 sports. Baseball is the most prevalent with 27 MLB players making the cut.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger leads 33 new faces in the top 100, ranking 11th with $48.9 million after inking a contract extension with the Pittsburgh Steelers in March that included a $31 million signing bonus. Americans dominate the list with 62 athletes, but the top 25 has a much more international flavor with 14 non-Americans (see "The World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2015: Behind The Numbers").
A pair of soccer players who compete every year for the title of the best player in the world's biggest sport landed the third and fourth spots in the top 100. Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo ranks third with earnings of $79.6 million. The three-time and reigning FIFA best player in the world has scored 60 or more goals in each of the last four calendar years. Real, which is the world's most valuable soccer club at $3.3 billion, rewards its star with more than $50 million a year in salary and bonuses. Ronaldo's commercial sponsors like Nike, Tag Heuer and Herbalife benefit from his massive social media presence—he counts 158 million followers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (see "Cristiano Ronaldo Heads The Most Popular Athletes On Social Media")
Barcelona rewarded their four-time FIFA player of the year, Lionel Messi, with a $9 million a year raise in 2014. It is Messi's seventh new contract since 2005 and puts his salary and bonuses in line with Ronaldo at $50 million a year through 2018. Messi delivered for Barca this season by leading the squad to its fifth Champions League title in June. His endorsement partners include Adidas , PepsiCo , Electronic Arts , Turkish Airlines , Gillette , Audemars Piguet and more. Samsung cast him as superhero Iron Man this year in its ad to promote the new Avengers film. The Argentine star banked $22 million off the pitch over the last year by our count with total earnings of $73.8 million.
Roger Federer ranks fifth with earnings of $67 million, including $58 million from sponsors, exhibitions and appearance fees. Federer dropped to No. 7 in the world tennis rankings in 2013, but he rebounded last year to finish the year in second. His endorsement portfolio is filled with long-term deals with blue-chip companies like Nike, Rolex and Credit Suisse. He extended his Mercedes-Benz deal at the end of 2014 for another three years. The latest addition is a five-year pact with Sunrise, the largest private telecommunications provider in Switzerland.
LeBron James is the NBA's top-earning player and ranks sixth among all athletes at $64.8 million. James is the first NBA player to appear in five straight NBA Finals since the Boston Celtics dynasty of the 1960s. The four-time MVP returned to Cleveland in July 2014 when he signed a two-year, $42.1 million contract after four seasons in Miami. James inked the shorter deal, instead of a richer four-year pact, so he could be a free agent again in 2016 when the NBA's new $24 billion TV deals kick in and send the salary cap soaring.
James added Kia Motors last year to his endorsement portfolio, which already included Nike, McDonald's , Coca-Cola , Samsung, Beats by Dre, Upper Deck, Tencent and Audemars Piguet. Sales of his signature Nike shoes were tops among active players at $340 million in the U.S. during 2014, according to research firm SportsOneSource, and his Cavs jersey was also the NBA's best seller.
The ranks of the world's highest-paid athletes are more testosterone-filled than ever with only two women making the list after the retirement of former regular Li Na from the WTA Tour last year. Maria Sharapova is the top-ranked women at No. 26 with earnings of $29.7 million. Sharapova bounced back from an injury riddled 2013 to win the 2014 French Open, triggering lucrative bonuses from sponsors like Nike and Head.
Serena Williams earned $24.6 million and ranks No. 47. The world's top-ranked tennis player captured her 20th Grand Slam singles title at the French Open. Her $72 million in career prize money is double that of Sharapova, her closest competitor. Williams added deals with Chase and Audemars Piguet to her endorsement portfolio, which is headed by Nike. She also expanded her Gatorade relationship to include the sports drink's parent PepsiCo, which used Williams in its revival of the Pepsi Challenge.
Full Coverage: The World's Highest Paid Athletes
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Kurt Badenhausen
I am a senior editor at Forbes and focused mainly on the business of sports and our annual franchise valuations. I also spend a lot of my time digging into what athletes
I am a senior editor at Forbes and focused mainly on the business of sports and our annual franchise valuations. I also spend a lot of my time digging into what athletes earn on and off the field of play. I've profiled a bunch of athletes that go by one name: LeBron, Shaq, Danica and others. I also started our biennial B-School rankings; annual features on the Best Places for Business (metros, states and countries); and America's Best Banks. I joined Forbes in 1998 after working 3 years at Financial World magazine. Email: kbadenhausen@forbes.com.