‘Money’ man Mayweather ends Tiger’s rich list reign
Woods has slipped to third in the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes list conducted by Forbes behind two boxers, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquaio.
Mayweather collected a total of $85m (€67.3m) for his two fights with Victor Ortiz in September and Miguel Cotto last month.
Forbes senior editor Kurt Badenhausen said: “There’s a reason they call boxer Floyd Mayweather ‘Money’. He fought twice during the past 12 months, spent less than one hour in the ring to dispatch his two foes — his combined pay day for the bouts: 85 million dollars.
“Mayweather maximises his earnings by also acting as his own fight promoter through his company Mayweather Promotions. He collects all of the revenue from tickets, pay-per-view and sponsorships and covers the costs, including the purse, for his opponent.”
Pacquaio trails in €18.1m behind Mayweather, with Woods picking up €47m in total, with just €3.5m of that in earnings as the remainder comes from sponsorship endorsements.
David Beckham remains the highest-earning footballer, picking up €36.3, with €29m in endorsements, followed closely by Cristiano Ronaldo, with Lionel Messi just outside the top 10 in 11th.
Fernando Alonso comes in as Formula One’s top earner — 19th place in the Forbes list — with overall earnings of €36.5m, with MotoGP’s seven-times champion Valentino Rossi 20th and seven-times F1 king Michael Schumacher 21st.
Other notables see golf’s current world No 1 Luke Donald at 48th, earning €18.2m, and Ireland’s Rory McIlroy 91st with €13.7m.
Just two women figure in the top 100, both from tennis, with world No 1 Maria Sharapova 26th and China’s Li Na 81st.
