Floyd Mayweather, Tiger Woods Top Highest Paid Athletes List

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has lived up to his nickname, Money, in the most supreme way possible. The legendary boxer is ranked as the highest paid athlete over the past 12 months.

Forbes Magazine ranked the top 100 highest paid athletes by accounting for athlete's salaries, total winnings, and endorsements.

Mayweather won his last two fights and earned a total of $85 million. The total amount of time he spent fighting in the ring: about 48 minutes. To reap all benefits from the fight, Mayweather uniquely promotes the fight himself.

His company, Mayweather Promotions allows him to collect all revenue earned from ticket sales, pay-per-view, and sponsorships. Mayweather's company even provides the purse for his opponent. This strategy allows Mayweather to squeeze as much money from the fights as possible

Other than Mayweather Promotions, the legendary boxer makes no money off of endorsements.

Not surprisingly, Manny Pacquiao ranked as the second highest paid athlete behind Mayweather, earning a total of $62 million. Considering Pacquiao does not do his own promotions and lost his last fight and, it's expected that he earned less than Mayweather.

Unlike Mayweather's monetary strategy, Pacquiao teamed up with big time sponsors such as Nike, Hewlett-Packard, and Monster Energy. His endorsements earned him $6 million on top of his $56 million in prize money.

The former highest paid athlete for the past 11 years, professional golfer Tiger Woods, dropped down to number three, earning $55 million from endorsements and $4.4 million from winnings. Tiger's drop from number one is justified by his 30-month losing streak.

LeBron James also made a slaying from endorsements, sitting as the fourth highest paid athlete. The 2012 NBA MVP brought in $40 million from sponsors along with his scheduled $13 million from his six year contract with the Miami Heat. Also representing the NBA, Kobe Bryant made the sixth spot at $52.3 million.

Peyton Manning made the list at number ten, as the highest paid NFL player. Manning is notorious for his sense of humor and likeable personably, justifying him as the highest endorsed player in the league. His sponsorships range from pizza chain Papa John's to Sony electronics. The NFL had an astonishing 30 players rank within the top 100.

The highest paid female athlete on the list is tennis player Maria Sharapova, who made $27.9 million.

Among the top 100 highest paid athletes, 11 sports were represented. All together, the top 100 highest paid athletes combined to generate a whopping $2.6 billion.