Boxer Mayweather tops sports' highest earners in 2018

Footballers Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo follow Floyd Mayweather in Forbes list of world's 100 top-earning athletes

By Fatih Erel

ISTANBUL (AA) - American boxer Floyd Mayweather reclaimed his title as the world's highest-paid athletes in 2018 with $285 million earnings.

Forbes on Thursday released its list of the world's 100 highest-paid athletes.

A 41-year-old boxer was followed by Argentinean footballer Lionel Messi with $111 million, and Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo with $108 million.

Barcelona's Messi, Juventus' Ronaldo, Paris Saint-Germain's Neymar are the footballers who made an appearance among the top 10 highest-paid athletes of the year.

The Forbes list also featured 40 basketball players. Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James ($85,5 million), Stephen Curry ($76,9 million), and Kevin Durant ($57,3 million) of Golden State Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder's Russell Westbrook ($47,6 million) and Houston Rockets' James Harden ($46,4 million) were inscribed on the list.

It also includes 18 names from American football, 14 from baseball, 9 from football, 5 from golf and martial arts each and 4 from tennis, 3 from motor sports and 1 from athletics and cricket each.

The world's highest-paid top 10 athletes in 2018 are as follows:

	Athletes	Country	Branch	Earnings ($)
1	Floyd Mayweather	USA	Boxing	285 million
2	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Football	111 million
3	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Football	108 million
4	Conor McGregor	Ireland Republic	Mixed martial arts	99 million
5	Neymar	Brazil	Football	90 million
6	LeBron James	USA	Basketball	85,5 million
7	Roger Federer	Switzerland	Tennis	77,2 million
8	Stephen Curry	USA	Basketball	76,9 million
9	Matt Ryan	USA	American football	67,3 million
10	Matthew Stafford	USA	American football	59,5 million

Mayweather's all-time earnings reached $1,07 billion.

He became the sixth athlete who exceeded $1 billion all-time earnings after Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Michael Schumacher.

The highest-paid athletes of all time are as follows:

	Athletes	Country	Branch	Earning ($)
1	Michael Jordan	USA	Basketball	1,85 billion
2	Tiger Woods	USA	Golf	1,7 billion
3	Arnold Palmer	USA	Golf	1,4 billion
4	Jack Nicklaus	USA	Golf	1,2 billion
5	Floyd Mayweather	USA	Boxing	1,07 billion
6	Michael Schumacher	Germany	Motor sports	1 billion
7	Phil Mickelson	USA	Golf	815 million
8	Kobe Bryant	USA	Basketball	800 million
9	David Beckham	England	Football	800 million
10	Shaquille O'Neal	USA	Basketball	735 million
11	LeBron James	USA	Basketball	730 million
12	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	Football	725 million
13	Greg Norman	Australia	Golf	705 million
14	Mike Tyson	USA	Boxing	700 million
15	Roger Federer	Switzerland	Tennis	675 million
16	Lionel Messi	Argentina	Football	600 million
17	Alex Rodriguez	USA	Baseball	575 million
18	Jeff Gordon	USA	Motor sports	525 million
19	Oscar De La Hoya	USA	Boxing	520 million

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