The 20 Highest-Paid Athletes in the World

They don't call him "Money" for nothing. Forbes released it's 2015 rendition of the top-100 highest-paid athletes in the world on Wednesday, and for the second straight year boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. topped the list, earning just $13 million less than the next three athletes combined.
Mayweather made over $200 million from his historic fight against Manny Pacquiao. Thanks to the fight generating nearly $600 million worth of revenue, Pacquiao actually comes in at second, albeit a distant second, on the list. He was the 11th highest-paid athlete in 2014.Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Roger Federer finished 3rd, 4th, and 5th respectively in the rankings that include both earnings and endorsements. This means that not a single player from the three major sports in the United States – football, basketball, and baseball – cracked the top-5.
LeBron James is the highest-paid basketball player at 6th, trailing Federer by just $2.2 million. Ben Roethlisberger, surprisingly, is the highest-paid football player, coming in at 11. And Jon Lester is the highest paid baseball player at 19.
For the sixth straight year, tennis star Maria Sharapova ($29.7 million) ranks as the highest-paid female athlete, finishing 26th overall.

Here's the top-20:

1.    Floyd Mayweather Jr. (boxing): $300 million

2.    Manny Pacquiao (boxing): $160 million

3.    Cristiano Ronaldo (soccer): $79.6 million

4.    Lionel Messi (soccer): $73.8 million

5.    Roger Federer (tennis): $67 million

6.    LeBron James (basketball): $64.8 million

7.    Kevin Durant (basketball): $54.1 million

8.    Phil Mickelson (golf): $50.8 million

9.    Tiger Woods (golf): $50.6 million

10.  Kobe Bryant (basketball): $49.5 million

11.  Ben Roethlisberger (football): $48.9 million

12.  Rory McIlroy (golf): $48.3 million

13.  Novak Djokovic (tennis): $48.2 million

14.  Zlatan Ibrahimovic (soccer): $39.1 million

15.  Lewis Hamilton (racing): $39 million

16.  Ndamukong Suh (football): $38.6 million

17.  Fernando Alonso (racing): $35.5 million

18.  Gareth Bale (soccer): $35 million

19.  Jon Lester (baseball): $34.1 million

20.  Derrick Rose (basketball): $33.9 million