--- title: And America's Highest Paid Athlete Is... description: Boxer Floyd Mayweather tops Forbes' Fortunate 50 list of the world's highest paid athletes for the third time. canonical: https://time.com/2891050/americas-highest-paid-athlete/ author: Jack Linshi article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-17T20:02:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:28:01.379Z article:section: World og:title: And America's Highest Paid Athlete Is... og:description: The boxer earned $105 million for 72 minutes of work og:url: https://time.com/2891050/americas-highest-paid-athlete/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff914915e07ca856/69869801169ab04bc5279f18/floyd-mayweather-highest-paid-athlete-fortunate-50.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Floyd Mayweather Jr. v Marcos Maidana og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: And America's Highest Paid Athlete Is... twitter:description: The boxer earned $105 million for 72 minutes of work twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff914915e07ca856/69869801169ab04bc5279f18/floyd-mayweather-highest-paid-athlete-fortunate-50.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # And America's Highest Paid Athlete Is...  by [Jack Linshi](/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jun 17, 2014 8:02 PM CUT  Floyd Mayweather reacts to his unanimously decided victory over Marcos Maidana during their fight on May 3, 2014. Floyd Mayweather reacts to his unanimously decided victory over Marcos Maidana during their fight on May 3, 2014.Harry How—Getty Images  by [Jack Linshi](/author/jack-linshi/)  ## Jack Linshi Jun 17, 2014 8:02 PM CUT Boxer Floyd Mayweather tops _Fortune_‘s and _Sports Illustrated_‘s Fortunate 50 list of the America’s highest paid athletes for the third time. Mayweather, a 37-year-old five-division world champion, earns a total of $105 million from his salary alone—he doesn’t even have endorsement deals. The staggering sum comes from a mere 72 minutes of fighting time against Canelo Alvarez and Marcos Maidana, _Forbes_ [reports](http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2014/06/11/floyd-mayweather-heads-2014-list-of-the-worlds-highest-paid-athletes/ "undefined"). In second is Miami Heat’s LeBron James with $57 million total earnings, and in third, Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant with $50 million total earnings. Tiger Woods, who is ranked 7th with $35 million total earnings, had occupied the no. 1 spot every year from 2004, when the list debuted, until 2011. \[[_Fortune_](http://fortune.com/fortunate50/floyd-mayweather-1/ "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2891050/americas-highest-paid-athlete/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2891050/americas-highest-paid-athlete/"},"headline":"And America's Highest Paid Athlete Is...","datePublished":"2014-06-17T20:02:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:28:01.379Z","description":"Boxer Floyd Mayweather tops Forbes' Fortunate 50 list of the world's highest paid athletes for the third time.","url":"https://time.com/2891050/americas-highest-paid-athlete/","keywords":["celebrities","Basketball","Sports topic","Athletes","Boxing","Fortune","floyd mayweather"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff914915e07ca856/69869801169ab04bc5279f18/floyd-mayweather-highest-paid-athlete-fortunate-50.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jack Linshi","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jack-linshi/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff914915e07ca856/69869801169ab04bc5279f18/floyd-mayweather-highest-paid-athlete-fortunate-50.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Floyd Mayweather Jr. v Marcos Maidana","caption":"Floyd Mayweather Jr. v Marcos Maidana","creditText":"Harry How—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2891050/americas-highest-paid-athlete/","name":"And America's Highest Paid Athlete Is..."}}]}] ```