The World's Highest Paid Athletes List 2012
Tiger Woods has lost his title as the world's highest paid athlete, which he had held since 2002, dropping to third place behind boxers Floyd "Money" Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Below is the top 10 of the highest earning sports people from 2012, taken from the annual list “The World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes” published by Forbes magazine in June 2012.
Mayweather fought only two fights in the previous year, though he maximizes his earnings by acting as his own fight promoter through his company Mayweather Promotions and therefore takes a greater percentage of his winnings. Both of these boxers had a rapid rise in the rankings - Pacquiao only ranked 24th last year with 25 million dollars in earnings, as he only had one fight during that period, and Mayweather was even lower on the list.
There were athletes from 11 different sports in the top 100, including two from cricket: MS Dhoni at 31 and Sachin Tendulkar at 78. Jamaican Track and field star Usain Bolt ranked 63 with $20.3 million in earnings. There were 30 players from American football in the top 100.
Manny Pacquiao - boxers are very well paidThe highest paid female athlete was Maria Sharapova with 27.9 million dollars in earnings, ranking her 26th on this list. The only other female on the list is another tennis player, Chinese player Li Na, who came in at no. 81 ($18.4 mil).
The earnings totals (in US dollars) are derived from salaries, bonuses, prize money, appearance fees, licensing and endorsement income in the 12 months from May 1, 2011 to May 1, 2012. Taxes or agents' fees are not factored into the figures. See also the top earning lists from other years.
Top-10 Highest Earning Sports people from 2012
| Rank | Name | Sport | Nationality | earning ($ million) |
previous year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Floyd Mayweather | Boxing | USA | $85 | ? |
| 2 | Manny Pacquiao | Boxing | Filipino | $62 | =24 |
| 3 | Tiger Woods | Golf | USA | $59.4 | 1 |
| 4 | LeBron James | Basketball | USA | $53 | 3 |
| 5 | Roger Federer | Tennis | Switzerland | $52.7 | 4 |
| 6 | Kobe Bryant | Basketball | USA | $52.3 | 2 |
| 7 | Phil Mickelson | Golf | USA | $47.8 | 5 |
| 8 | David Beckham | Soccer | UK | $46 | 6 |
| 9 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Soccer | Portugal | $42.5 | 21 |
| 10 | Peyton Manning | American Football | USA | $42.4 | 7 |
Next on the list were: Lionel Messi, Haloti Ngata, Larry Fitzgerald, Ndamukong Suh, Charles Johnson, Rafael Nadal, Mario Williams, Alex Rodriguez, Fernando Alonso, Valentino Rossi.
source: from “The World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes” published by Forbes magazine in June 2012.
Related Pages
- See the top earning lists from other years.
- Top paid sports women for 2012
- See also the top 10 highest paid in 2012 according to Sports Illustrated
- Other world sport lists
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
Old Comments
Commenting is closed on this page, though you can read some previous comments below which may answer some of your questions.
- Where does dhoni stands? golf players are overrated (from shivam, Mar 2013)
- Then Who is d richest footballer? (from Ifezue ddon, Mar 2013)
- Messi is the highest paid footballer in the world, followed by David Beckham and Christiano Ronaldo. (from Oliver, Mar 2013)
- Basketball is so overated just like air jordans. Boxing is where they are paying Lebron won't make it in that sport Go alonzo now that guy has to life (from whatiswood, Feb 2013)
- My game is BOXING i am happy 2 see floyd maywealther top the list follow by pacquiao. (from TURNINGSTAR, Nov 2012)
- Who is the most paid footballer, because some claim its Messi and others Christiano (from Masimba Madamombe, Nov 2012)
- Hey what about samuel etoo? (from tayong sama, Oct 2012)
- America is rich then player is rich (from Pappu, July 2012)
- Damn money ... ! (from Clarkson, June 2012)
- Oh i think its great, coz its not easy 2 know.the forbs are doing a great job thunks (from yung jesus, June 2012)
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