Floyd Mayweather Jr. topped Forbes 2014 list of highest-paid athletes netting $105 million, and if his May 2 mega-fight with Manny Pacquiao earns at the high end of predictions, he could double that number this year.
With everything surrounding the super-fight being larger than life, the paychecks will be large enough to set both fighters for life.
Mayweather’s will help him earn the most money a athlete has made over the course of a year, even without another fight this year.
Guaranteed around $150 million, that number can soar near the $200 million mark for Mayweather if pay-per-view sales are stronger than most are projecting. PPV sales are expected to reach at least $300 million off 3 million projected buys, but could gross much higher if the fight surpasses the expected mark.
Add that to the gate at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, which is expected to haul $75 million of tickets selling for $1,500 to $10,000 and a reported $35 million for foreign rights to the fight, and the total number the fight should pull in will be around $400 million to $500 million total.
No matter if he makes the low end or the high end of projected revenue, Mayweather will eclipse golfer Tiger Woods’ all-time yearly earnings mark of $115 million ($125 with inflation) set in 2008.
Pacquiao’s haul won’t be too shabby either, as he should earn over $100 million, which mark the most money he’s made in a year.
Both fighters earning north of the $100 million mark, it will the 13th and 14th time in history an athlete has surpassed $100 million. The first time for Pacquiao, the second time for Mayweather.
Making Mayweather’s feat all the more impressive is that he rakes in all this money without a single endorsement dollar, a factor that most other athletes on the list each year, make the majority of their earnings.
This will have the two boxers in elite company, as Woods, basketball great Michael Jordan, boxers Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield and race car driver Michael Shumacher as the one athletes to earn $100 million in a year (with inflation included).
All-Time Highest-Paid Athletes Inflation-Adjusted
(year, actual earnings)
- Tiger Woods: $125 million (2008, $115 mil)
- Woods: $120 million (2009, $110 mil)
- Michael Jordan: $115 million (1997, $78 mil)
- Jordan: $115 million (1998, $80 mil)
- Woods: $113 million (2007, $100 mil)
- Woods: $113 million (2010, $105 mil)
- Mike Tyson: $112 million (1996, $75 mil)
- Woods: $105 million (2006, $90 mil)
- Woods: $105 million (2005, $87 mil)
- Evander Holyfield: $104 million (1991, $61 mil)
- Floyd Mayweather: $104 million (2014, $105 mil)
- Woods: $100 million (2004, $80 mil)
- Michael Schumacher: $100 million (2004, $80 mil)
- Woods: $100 million (2003, $78 mil)
Earnings cover the previous 12-months
from when Forbes issue was published.
