Floyd "Money" Mayweather certainly lived up to his name in 2018. The boxer took home $285 million in earnings last year, in large part thanks to his fight with Conor McGregor. One year later, Mayweather has taken a tumble, to the point that he's not even among the 100 highest earners.
So who's the new #1? That honor belongs to Lionel Messi. Per Forbes, the FC Barcelona soccer star earned $127 million between June 2018 and June 2019, making him the highest-paid athlete over that span.
He's closely followed by two other soccer players: Juventus's Cristiano Ronaldo ($109 million) and Paris Saint-Germain's Neymar ($105 million).
Canelo Alvarez ($94 million) and Roger Federer ($93.4 million) round out the top five.
Al Bello/Getty Images
Perhaps the most interesting name on the list is Federer. He only won a little more than $7 million on the court, with the majority of his earnings – $86 million – coming from off-court endorsements.
As for Mayweather, don't feel too bad for him. He's still the tenth highest-paid athlete of all-time, with $785 million in career earnings. His 50 fights have generated approximately $1.67 billion in revenue.
His fight against McGregor remains his last official one. Despite making $9 million during an exhibition match in Japan, Mayweather hasn't indicated any future fights on the horizon. So it's only natural that he'd fall out of the top earners.
For 2019, Messi takes the top spot – even though he earned less than half what Mayweather did. As a group, the top 100 earners earned a total of $4 billion. Being an athlete has never been so lucrative.
