By Gareth Rees: Forbes recently released the list of the top 100 highest earning sportsmen in the world in the past year; with Floyd Mayweather Jr topping the list and Manny Pacquiao coming in second.
So say what you want and what you think off guys like Floyd Mayweather and Bob Arum but they know how to sell their product and make money out of it. But it does say a lot about us the public that Mayweather tops the list whilst in jail for assaulting his girlfriend. Pacquiao is second who has admitted to problems with gambling, drinking and womanising which threatened his marriage and third is golfer Tiger Woods who is recently divorce because of his many affairs. All not exactly great examples for the youth of today.
Mayweather is infamous for playing the bad boy in his fights, whilst some of his personality traits maybe true, a lot of it is all for show. Mayweather has admitted that he thrives and likes the fans hating him as that’s what makes him money, along with his undoubted skill and talent in the ring. Mayweather knows the more he plays the bad boy and upsets the fans, the more likely they are to still buy a ticket or the pay-per-view, this is because they want to see him get beaten for the first time and want to see the opponent put a real beating on Mayweather. Floyd made a total of $85 million and maximises his income by promoting the fight himself and there was no endorsement money included in the figure, which makes it even more astounding.
Pacquiao made a total of $62 million with $6 million of the total, coming from endorsements with the likes of Nike and Monster Energy. This shows the difference between the pairs ability to sell a fight. Pacquiao is undoubtedly the more popular fighter amongst fans but his salary and winnings are not even in Mayweather’s league. In his fight with Miguel Cotto, Mayweather made nearly as much as Pacquiao did for the whole year, earning $45 million for the Cotto fight alone.
But just to show the dominance both Mayweather and Pacquiao have in boxing, the closest boxer to them in the list is Wladimir Klitschko who was 24th in the list earning $24 million. It must be noted however that the majority of Klitschko’s fans are German and German TV doesn’t tend to show Klitschko’s fights on PPV. Still the fact that the number one heavyweight in the world and former Olympic champion only makes in a year just over half of what Mayweather earns for one fight says it all. Arrogant yes, annoying, well to most people but one thing you can’t argue about is that Floyd Mayweather is all about making money and he definitely knows how to do that.
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