Floyd Mayweather Jr is the world's highest paid athlete; Pacquaio and Woods follows

Floyd Mayweather, Jr is the world’s highest paid athlete released by Forbes magazine.

Mayweather took an income with $85 million for a year. His winning fight against Victor Ortiz and Miguel Cotto helps to boast his income. Fellow boxer and Pound for pound king Manny Pacquaio is on the second spot as the highest paid athlete with $62 million earnings. The bouts netted him $56 million, including money he gets from their broadcast in the Philippines. He also made an estimated $6 million over the past year outside the ring through endorsements with Nike, Hewlett-Packard, Monster Energy and Hennessy.

Golfer Tiger Woods ends his reign for 11 years as the highest paid athlete downs to third spot with $59.4 million earnings. Despite his collapse in this year’s U.S. Open, Woods is playing much better on the course and his prize money doubled from the prior 12 months. But the $2 million bump in prize money does not offset the loss of sponsors like Tag Heuer and Gillette. His golf course investments have been struggles and files bankruptcy for his Dubai course, North Carolina course and Cliffs Club and Hospitality.

Miami Heat star LeBron James ranks fourth at $53 million, the highest of 13 basketball players and on the list. The Heat are playing the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals as James seeks his first league crown. Swiss tennis star Roger Federer was fifth at $52.7 million followed by NBA star Kobe Bryant at $52.3 million, US golfer Phil Mickelson at $47.8 million, English football star David Beckham of the Los Angeles Galaxy at $46 million and Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo at $42.5 million, with the top annual salary of any athlete in any league at $20 million. NFL Player Peyton Manning, the former Indianapolis Colts star who was cut in March and signed with the Denver Broncos for $96 million over six years completes the top 10 highest paid athletes with $42.4 million earnings.

Source:Forbes