Floyd Mayweather Net Worth: Floyd Jr. Tops Manny Pacquiao on List of Highest Paid Athletes
Undefeated boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. has reigned supreme once again.
Mayweather surpassed his recent opponent in Las Vegas, Manny Pacquiao, on Forbes' list of The World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2015. "The Money," who holds a 48-0 win-loss record, lead the roster with a reported total pay of $300 million, with $285 million coming from salary or winnings alone, and the rest of the 15 million was derived from advertisements.
On the other hand, "Pacman," who lost to Mayweather and sustained a shoulder injury even before the May fight, came in second but with a great margin from the American boxer. The Philippine champ reportedly gained a total pay of $160 million, with $148 million from salary or winnings and $12 million from endorsement deals. This means that although Pacquaio lost in the ring, he was still a winner, after all.
Although the battle between the two of the greatest boxers of their time was a major disappointment to fans who waited nearly six years for the event, the fight was indeed successful financially.
Forbes also noted that the fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao could become the first bout to reach a $600 million record for a single 36-minute boxing match once all sales are accounted for.
Revenues from the fight will come from various sources and here are the estimated figures: $73 million in ticket sales, $13 million in advertisements/sponsors, $35 to 50 million in foreign TV rights and $430 million in domestic Pay-Per-Views.
From all the sources, the one with the highest impact was the pay-per-view television service, which cost $90-100 depending on the resolution (standard or HD). The PPV was actually initially estimated to cater to only three million U.S. households but there were 4.4 million PPV buys in America alone and around 700,000 in the U.K.
When it was announced that the PPV buys surpassed the Mayweather vs. De La Hoya fight in 2007 record of 2.48 million, Bob Arum of Top Rank was elated over the news, reported ESPN.
"I think it was something we knew we would beat the prior record, but we didn't have any reasonable expectation that it would exceed it by as much as it did. We were confident it would go over 3 million (PPV buys), maybe do 3.5 million on the outside. But it just caught fire," Arum told the sports site.
Arum also claimed that the PPV buys could reach five million in the U.S. and one million in the U.K. once counting is finalized, Forbes informed. With more revenues, Mayweather's earnings and net worth will surge further and will widen the gap not just on Pacquaio but with other top players on the list like soccer star players Cristiano Ronaldo($79.6 million, at 3rd spot) and Lionel Messi ($73.8million, at 4th spot), and tennis player Roger Federer ($67million, at 5th spot).
Basketball stars LeBron James ($64.8 million), Kevin Durant ($54.1 million) and Kobe Bryant ($49.5 million) also made it to the top 10 list, ranking at 6th, 7th and 10th place, respectively.
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