Today, the lifestyles of many athletes are mirroring celebrities in that the most well-known are paid extremely well and have large public followings. Out of the top 5 highest-paid sports in the world, one where individual athletes are handsomely paid when they reach the elite level is the sport of boxing. This article will cover the top 5 highest paid boxers, likely blowing you away with some of the figures.
Mike Tyson made $400 million
Mike Tyson is one of the most recognized names of boxing in the world of popular media. While Mike Tyson has certainly made bank in the movie world, he also makes it onto this list of some of the highest-paid boxers. He was a hard hitter and despite being shorter than many of his opponents in the ring, he still managed to put on impressive performances. In his prime, Tyson made an average of $30 million per fight. Unfortunately for Mike Tyson, he made several poor decisions, such as the time he made an offer to a zookeeper to let him fight a Silverback Gorilla, which resulted in the loss of a large chunk of his fortune.
Oscar De La Hoya made $450 million
Oscar De La Hoya is also known as “The Golden Boy of Boxing”. When you think about the bank he made in the ring, “Golden Boy” is a fitting name. De La Hoya began his career on a dominant streak. He won almost 20 fights in a row out of his first professional fights. In this time he took the WBC welterweight title from Paez and defended it an impressive 7 times. Of course, with the fame and accolades De La Hoya accrued, the money certainly followed. In fact, when De La Hoya fought Felix Trinidad in 1999, he made an eye-watering $21 million despite losing the fight. This match-up also set a record at the time for the highest-grossing non-heavyweight fight in the history of pay-per-view fights. Other notable big-money fights for the Golden Boy of Boxing De La Hoya vs. Shane Mosley for $17 million guaranteed, De La Hoya vs. Manny Pacquiao for $35 million guaranteed, De La Hoya vs. Bernard Hopkins for $30 million guaranteed and even De La Hoya vs. for $52 million guaranteed!
Canelo Àlvarez made $500 million
Canelo Àlvarez., a.k.a. ‘cinnamon’ Àlvarez was a dominant boxer since the first occasion he stepped into the ring as a professional. It wasn’t long in his career before he took the title of WBC and The Ring light middleweight champion. A key development that catapulted Àlvarez to his high-earning status is that his fights caught the attention of the all-star boxer, Floyd Mayweather. The two organized a fight and even though Àlvarez lost, he pocketed $5 million from guaranteed earnings as well as a percentage of the $2.2 million that was generated in PPVs. In addition, Àlvarez had multiple fights against Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin. These two seemed to be the antagonists of each other’s boxing careers, a storyline that drew in the roar of the crowds and the money along with it. From each of his three fights with Golovkin Àlvarez earned $40 million, $30 million and $45 million respectively. If you include pay-per-views, Àlvarez’s actual earnings from Àlvarez vs Golovkin 3 are probably more like $100 million.
Manny Pacquiao made $600 million
Manny Pacquiao’s boxing career is a true example of a rags-to-riches story. Despite his humble beginnings, Pacquiao fought his way to becoming the second highest-paid boxer of all time. Pacquiao was on absolute fire throughout the 2000s as he won titles in 7 separate weight classes. This list included the IBF and WBO super bantamweight, the WBC super featherweight, the WBC lightweight, and the WBO welterweight. However, despite his success throughout the 2000s, Pacquiao’s breakthrough moment was his 2008 bout with Oscar De La Hoya. This fight caught the attention of boxing fans around the world especially seeing as Pacquiao, the clear underdog in terms of power, reach and experience, still took the fight in a spectacular fashion. This fight generated a cool $70 million in PPV revenue and Pacquiao himself went home with $15 million plus was later paid a portion of PPV earnings. Another notable bout of his was Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather in 2015. Everyone from diehard boxing fans to glitzed-up celebrities bought tickets. That’s why it comes as a surprise to no one that the match made organizers anywhere between $300 and $400 million in total gross revenue. Pacquiao’s guaranteed purse was $130 million.
Floyd Mayweather made $1 billion
With his name, Floyd “Money” Mayweather, it’s fitting that this big-money fighter takes the number one spot on this list of the highest-paid boxers of all time. In fact, Mayweather is the only boxer to earn over $1 billion dollars from the sport of boxing. Mayweather’s notable paydays include; Mayweather vs De La Hoya earning him $25 million, Mayweather vs Shane Moseley earning him $30 to $40 million, Mayweather vs Canelo Alvarez earning him $40 million plus PPVs, and Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao earning him no less than $240 to $250 million. However, listing Maywether’s notable paydays would be incomplete without discussing his fight against Connor McGregor, a UFC champion, in a boxing crossover event. In the fight, Mayweather TKO ‘ed McGregor in the 10th round. It became the second-biggest event ever in pay-per-view sales and earned Mayweather an incredible $300 million. In addition to being the highest paid, Mayweather boasted a clean defense and lightning-fast counters that put him in the running to be considered the greatest boxer of all time. In fact, the boxer retired with a perfect record of 50-0, what a legend.
