Floyd Mayweather ended highly successful 2015 calendar year as the highest paid athlete in the world with total earnings of around $300 million from his two fights. He made around $260 million from Manny Pacquiao fight alone which was the biggest purse in history of boxing while he made another $40 million with his career’s last bout against Andre Berto. Mayweather has topped the highest paid athlete list for last 4-5 years and but since he is retired we are likely to see the likes of Ronaldo and Messi making it to the top.
We take a look top 25 athletes according to their earnings in 2015. Total earnings include both their professional sports contracts/winning and the endorsement deals.
| NO# | ATHLETES | EARNINGS | DETAILS |
| 1 |  Floyd Mayweather |
$300m | Made $250m in Pacquiao fight another $40 million against Berto. Mayweather don’t have endorsement deals |
| 2 |  Manny Pacquiao |
$130m | $120 million earned from Mayweather fight plus another $10 million from endorsement deals (he was stripped of lucrative endorsement deals after homophobic comments) |
| 3 |  Cristiano Ronaldo |
$79.6m | Highest paid footballer with lucrative $408,000 a week after tax contract with Real Madrid plus multiple high profile endorsement deals earning him around $27 million a year. |
| 4 |  Lionel Messi |
$72.3m | Messi also have after tax contract with Barcelona earning home around $400,000 a week plus number of lucrative endorsement deals like Adidas, EA Sports, Turkish Airlines to name a few. |
| 5 |  Roger Federer |
$67m | Earned around $9 million from his winnings in major tennis events in 2015 plus his lucrative deals with Nike, Rolex and Credit Suisse etc earning him massive $58 million in sponsorship money. |
| 6 | LeBron James |
$64.8m | $20.8 million in salary plus his biggest endorsement deal history with Nike earning him around $40 to $50 million range. |
| 7 | Kevin Durant |
$54.1m | $19.1 million in salary plus 10 year endorsement deal with Nike worth $285 million earning him around $28.5m a year. |
| 8 | Phil Mickelson |
$50.8m | Only $2.8 million in golf winnings but oldest man in the list still making a massive $48m in sponsorship money with incredible contracts with blue-chip companies like Callaway, Barclays, KPMG etc. |
| 9 | Tiger Woods |
$50.6m | Only made around $600,000 from his actual winning in golf last year but living off well with lucrative deals and being the face of Nike, EA Sports Golf. Nike still pay him around $20 million being part of nike golf. |
| 10 | Kobe Bryant |
$49.5m | $23.5m salary with LA Lakers and a $26m worth of endorsement deals with Turkish Airlines, Nike, Lenovo, Hublot and Panini plus his own Kobe Inc in full flow. |
| 11 | Ben Roethlisberger |
$48.9m | Signed a massive $87.4 million contract over period of 4 years with Pittsburgh Steelers with a $31.1m signing bonus. He also signed couple of sponsorship deals worth $2.5m |
| 12 |  Rory McIlroy |
$48.3m | Earned impressive $16.3m in 2015 in his golf winnings and combine that with his lucrative sponsorship deals where he takes home as much as $32 million. |
| 13 |  Novak Djokovic |
$48.2m | Highly successful 2015 ended with Novak taking home career best earnings of $17.2m in one year. He also have highly lucrative deal japan company with Uniqlo plus other deals earning him in region of $32m |
| 14 |  Zlatan Ibrahimović |
$39.1m | $355,000 a week salary with PSG takes his yearly earnings to $31 million plus a another $5 to $6 million in endorsements. |
| 15 |  Lewis Hamilton |
$39m | Signed financially improved deal with Mercedes after winning 2015 title where he will earn $36m a year guaranteed for next three years. Another $3m a year in sponsorship deals with IWC and Bombardier. |
| 16 | Ndamukong Suh |
$38.6m | Signed a massive 6 year deal with Dolphins worth $114.3m in total. His base yearly salary is around $35m. He also got $25m in signing bonus. |
| 17 |  Fernando Alonso |
$35.5m | One of the highest paid F1 driver with his current deal with McLaren which runs out in 2017. He can earn around $40m ($30 guaranteed plus $10m potential performance bonuses) |
| 18 |  Gareth Bale |
$35m | $25.5 million a year with his Real madrid contract plus sponsorship deals with adidas and other companies. |
| 19 | Jon Lester |
$34.1m | Signed historic 6 year deal with Chicago Cubs a deal worth $155 million over six years. |
| 20 | Derrick Rose |
$33.9m | Signed a 5 year deal back in 2012 with Chicago Bulls worth around $94.3m. With base salary of $18,8m a year. |
| 21 |  Sebastian Vettel |
$33m | Signed the biggest deal in Formula 1 history back in 2013 where he earned $50m in first year and guaranteed $30m plus bonuses in remainder of the 3 year contract. |
| 22 | Rafael Nadal |
$32.5m | Only around $2m in tennis winnings during 2015 but his sponsorship deals with companies like Nike, Tag heuer etc earns hom cool $25m to $30m a year. |
| 23 |  MS Dhoni |
$31m | Only $4.5m in salary with national indian team and domestic IPL contract. Majority of his income comes from massive list of endorsement deals in India. |
| 24 |  Neymar |
$31m | Already a household name and one of the most marketable athlete in the world. Neymar earns around $14m with his Barcelona contract plus another $16m to $18m in sponsors. |
