Floyd “Money” Mayweather tops the 2013 Sports Illustrated Fortunate 50 list, which ranks the 50 highest paid athletes in the world. Mayweather, not surprisingly, is in the number 1 position once again.
SI projects him to make at least $90 million this year, based on his most recent fight against Robert Guerrero, and his upcoming fight scheduled for September, likely against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. SI projects he could potentially earn up to $128 million for those two fights, depending on how the numbers shake out.
Mayweather was also number 1 on the list last year, with $85 million in earnings from two fights against Victor Ortiz and Miguel Cotto.
His fight against Guerrero was rumored to have tanked in terms of pay-per-view sales. However, Showtime has come out and said that the Mayweather vs. Guerrero bout topped at least 1 million PPVs, in addition to nearly $10 million at the gate, and various other revenue sources.
Mayweather was guaranteed to make $32 million for that fight (against opponent Guerrero’s $3 million), but was likely hoping to generate $50 million or more. It seems like he’ll be on the lower half of that figure since the pay-per-view wasn’t a smashing success, even if it was lucrative.
[Also see:Photo gallery: The Flashy Lifestyle of Floyd Mayweather]
The expected fight against Canelo Alvarez would of course generate far more income. Canelo is a certified star all on his own, and a fight between the two would be a huge blockbuster event.
SI’s Fortunate 50 list of the highest paid athletes in the world includes salary, bonuses, winnings and endorsements. What’s most impressive is that Mayweather has essentially no income from endorsements (SI puts it at $0 exactly) and he still dwarfs the rest of the contenders.
By comparison, Lebron James is number 2 in the list from Sports Illustrated, at a combined $56.5 million of earnings, with a whopping $39 million of that total coming from his endorsements.
Manny Pacquiao is number 6 on the International 20 list from SI. He is credited with making $35 million in the last year. That figure would be good enough for the number 7 position on the Fortunate 50, but he wasn’t specifically included there for some reason.
Of course, both Mayweather and Pacquiao passed up their highest potential paydays by forgoing a fight with one another while it was the most in demand potentially event in the world.
