Something for the weekend: American boxer Floyd Mayweather has secured his latest sporting victory, ranking as the world’s highest-paid athlete in Forbes’ 2018 list.
Between 1 June 2017 and 1 June 2018, the undefeated boxing champ earned $285 million (£214 million) including salary, bonuses, prize money, endorsements, licensing and appearance fees. This is the fourth time in the last seven years that Mayweather has topped the highest-paid athlete list.
The top 100 best-paid athletes earned a total of $3.8 billion (£2.9 billion) over the past 12 months, a 23% increase from 2017’s highest sporting wages.
Footballers Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo also ranked highly, with salaries of $111 million (£83 million) and $108 million (£81 million) respectively. Swiss tennis star Roger Federer took home an impressive $77.2 million (£58 million) over the last 12 months. American golfer Tiger Woods hit gold rather than the green with a total of $43.3 million (£33 million), but British race driver Lewis Hamilton sped ahead of him with $51 million (£38 million).
The world’s highest-paid athlete list features no female sports stars for 2018.
The top 10 highest-paid athletes in the world for 2018 are:
- Floyd Mayweather: $285 million (£214 million)
- Lionel Messi: $111 million (£83 million)
- Cristiano Ronaldo: $108 million (£81 million)
- Conor McGregor: $99 million (£74 million)
- Neymar: $90 million (£67 million)
- LeBron James: $85.5 million (£64 million)
- Roger Federer: $77.2 million (£58 million)
- Stephen Curry: $76.9 million (£57 million)
- Matt Ryan: $67.3 million (£51 million)
- Matthew Stafford: $59.5 million (£45 million)
