Image copyright Reuters
Mayweather (l) and McGregor slugged it out for 10 rounds of their combat in August
US boxer Floyd Mayweather has regained his title within the Forbes rankings of the world's top 100 earning athletes.
He earned a $275m (£205m) payday for his boxing match in August in opposition to UFC star Conor McGregor, who's quantity 4 on the United States enterprise journal's checklist.
Cristiano Ronaldotop for the previous two yearsdrops to 3rd, with Lionel Messi edging him out of second place after signing a new contract.
The top 100 athletes earned a complete of $three.8bn, up 23% from final 12 months.
F1 driver Lewis Hamilton is the top Briton at quantity 12 with $51m.
There aren't any ladies on the checklist this 12 months, after the earlier sole entrant, Serena Williams, dropped out of the chart.
Mayweatherone in all whose nicknames is Moneynoticed his sports activities earnings added to by $10m from endorsements.
"Boxing's biggest night of 2017 helped Mayweather and McGregor earn nearly $400m combined," stated Kurt Badenhausen, senior editor at Forbes Media.
"But basketball players dominate the top 100 overall thanks to a soaring salary cap triggered by the NBA's $24bn TV contract."
He added: "Forbes' lists of top-earning athletes have long been testosterone heavy. But there has always been at least one female athlete, and as many as three, who qualified since the list was expanded to at least 50 names in 2010. Not this year."
The top 10
- Floyd Mayweatherboxing ($285m)
- Lionel Messisoccer ($111m)
- Cristiano Ronaldosoccer ($108m)
- Conor McGregorblended martial arts ($99m)
- Neymarsoccer ($90m)
- LeBron Jamesbasketball ($85,5m)
- Roger Federertennis ($77.2m)
- Stephen Currybasketball ($76.9m)
- Matt RyanAmerican soccer ($67.3m)
- Matthew StaffordAmerican soccer ($59.5m)
See the total checklist right here.
US domination
Floyd Mayweather, Cristiano Ronaldo and Tiger Woodsat quantity 16 this 12 monthsare the one three athletes to top the best-paid checklist over the previous 18 years.
The beginning revenue for the 2018 checklist was a report $22.9m, up $1.5m from the earlier 12 months, largely as a result of hovering salaries within the NBA.
Endorsement revenue from sponsorship offers fell barely, by 1% to $877m.
Players from 11 completely different sports activities are featured within the checklist, and from 22 completely different nations.
NBA stars lead with a record-topping 40 basketball gamers among the many top 100. American Football was the following most-represented sport with 18 gamers, adopted by baseball with 14 and soccer with 9.
Americans dominate the placings with 66 athletes, whereas the UK has 5, led by F1 driver Lewis Hamilton at quantity 12 with $51m.
The Dominican Republic and Spain have three athletes, whereas Argentina, Brazil, France, Japan and Venezuela all have two.