Feature image: Mike Lawrie/Getty Images Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather earnt £205.9m from his fight against Conor McGregor
Floyd Mayweather, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the top three world’s highest earning athletes, topping the 100 highest-paid athletes.
According to Forbes, Mayweather took the top spot for the fourth time in seven years after earning $275 million after the last boxing match against UFC star Connor McGregor.
Mayweather has toppled Ronaldo who held the crown the previous two years.
Ronaldo’s longtime rival Messi is second with $111 million after signing a new contract.
Ronaldo comes in 3rd with $108.
In the past 12 months, The 100 highest paid athletes earned a collective $3.8 billion, this is a 23% increase from the previous year.
Connor McGregor is 4th, Neymar Jr is 5th & Lebron James 6th followed by Roger Federer, Steph Curry, Matt Ryan, and Mathew Stafford in positions 7, 8, 9 & 10.
Serena William was the top female earner during the period in review however she did not make it to the top 100.
In the top 100, athletes from 11 different sports made the cut.
NBA had 40 players in the top 100; NFL was second most represented among the top 100 with 18 athletes.
Baseball had 14, soccer had 9, Golf had 5, boxing & tennis had 4 each & racing had 3 representatives each in the top 100.
Countries that produce athletes in the top 100 highest earners include USA 66, UK 5, Dominica republic & Spain had 3 athletes each while Argentina, Brazil, France, Japan and Venezuela all have two athletes each.
The methodology used for the ranking by Forbes considers earning figures including all prize money, salaries & bonuses earned between June 1 2017 & June 1 2018 and endorsements.
