MANILA, Philippines - No question about it, WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao was the No. 1 dollar earner in boxing last year, grossing $32 Million from facing Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito. The amount was cited in ESPN – The Magazine (May 2) and put Pacquiao on top of the sports ladder with baseball’s Alex Rodriguez.
The figure was the total of Pacquiao’s guaranteed purses, excluding whatever else he earned from a share in pay-per-view sales. His fight against Margarito generated 1.15 million cable buys. It was the third straight year where Pacquiao brought in at least a million pay-per-view hits.
Pacquiao’s fights against Oscar de la Hoya in 2008 and Miguel Cotto in 2009 both took in 1.25 million pay-per-view subscriptions. Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said Pacquiao’s bout against Sugar Shane Mosley last weekend will likely deliver more than 1.25 million what with the promotional push from terrestrial network CBS to boost the Showtime telecast.
Pacquiao was guaranteed $20 Million for the Mosley bout. If his share in the pay-per-view income exceeds the guarantee, the increment will be added to Pacquiao’s bank account. The estimate is Pacquiao could earn about $5 Million more.
Ranking third in the sports money list was auto racer Kimi Raikkonen who pulled in $26,333,333, including $12.7 Million from his severed Formula 1 contract. Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was in fourth spot with $24.8 Million.
Other athletes with eight-figure paychecks were football’s Peyton Manning at $15.8 Million, hockey’s Vincent Lecavalier and Roberto Luongo both with $10 Million salaries, jockey Ramon Dominguez with $17.4 Million (not his individual share), soccer’s Cristiano Ronaldo with $19.5 Million and tennis’ Rafael Nadal with $10.2 Million.
Surprisingly, Tiger Woods wasn’t the top earner in golf. It was England’s Luke Donald who bankrolled $5,867,601 in tournament winnings. He has won three PGA and four European tours.
The lowest-earning athlete in a sport was female bowler Shannon Pluhowsky with $40,300. The top male billiards earner was Darren Appleton with $118,494. Seven-figure grossers were bull riding’s Renato Nunes, darts’ Phil Taylor, drag racing’s Larry Dixon, equestrian McLain Ward, female golfer Na Yeon Choi, mixed martial arts’ Brock Lesnar, poker’s Jonathan Duhamel and female tennis’ Kim Clijsters.
ESPN noted that Pacquiao’s $32 Million income was a far cry from the Philippines’ per capita gross domestic product of $1,747. In a survey of 181 countries, only two other fighters topped the money list of athletes in their homelands – Ukraine’s Vitaly Klitschko with at least $6 Million and Samoa’s David Tua with $500,000.
Basketball players were No. 1 in several countries – Australia’s Andrew Bogut ($11,050,000), China’s Yao Ming ($17.7 Million), Georgia’s Zaza Pachulia ($4.3 Million), Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki ($17.3 Million), Greece’s Theodoros Papaloukas ($4.4 Million), Guadeloupe’s Mickael Pietrus ($5.3 Million), Haiti’s Samuel Dalembert ($12.2 Million), Latvia’s Andris Biedrins ($9 Million), Lithuania’s Linas Kleiza ($4.9 Million), Martinique’s Ronny Turiaf ($4 Million), Russia’s Andrei Kirilenko ($17.8 Million), Senegal’s DeSagana Diop ($6.5 Million), Serbia’s Peja Stojakovic ($15.6 Million), Sudan’s Luol Deng ($11.3 Million), Tanzania’s Hasheem Thabeet ($4.8 Million), Turkey’s Hedo Turkoglu ($9.8 Million) and the US Virgin Islands’ Tim Duncan ($18.7 Million).
Vietnam’s top earner was Lee Nguyen, a 24-year-old Dallas native whose parents are Vietnamese. He pocketed $180,000 playing soccer for Becamex Binh Duong and will likely be given dual citizenship for eligibility with the national team in the Southeast Asian Games.
Among Southeast Asian athletes, the top earners were Thai golfer Thongchai Jaidee with $1.4 Million, Malaysian badminton star Lee Chong Wei with $106,000, Indonesian soccer player Bambang Pamungkas with $160,000, Brunei’s hockey pro Craig Adams with $550,000 and Singaporean golfer Mardan Mamat with $500,609.
Athletes who filed for bankruptcy since 2000 included former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson and NBA cagers Kenny Anderson, Jason Caffey, Derrick Coleman and Antoine Walker.
Tyson amassed at least $400 Million in a 10-year career. He owes about $13.4 Million to the internal revenue service, $4 Million in U. K. taxes, $174,000 to jewelers, $78,000 to a rug company and $60,600 to Ferrari of Beverly Hills.