The 20 highest-paid athletes in the world

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Floyd Mayweather

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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.

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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.

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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

Check out the entire list here >

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