Pacquiao plummets to No. 63 in Forbes' list of top paid athletes

MANILA, Philippines – From his lofty status at second place in 2015, Manny Pacquiao plunged to No. 63 in Forbes’ list of highest paid athletes for this year.

Pacquiao owed his high ranking last year to his megabuck showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May last year, which ended up as boxing’s richest fight ever. The Filipino lost that fight, and an injured shoulder forced him to sit out the rest of 2015.

“Pacquiao's fight with Floyd Mayweather in May 2015 set every financial record in the history of boxing, including PPV buys (4.6 million), gate ($73 million) and total revenue ($600 million), and rewarded him with a $125 million payday,” Forbes wrote in its entry on Pacquiao.

For this year, however, Pacquiao fought only once – defeating Timothy Bradley in April – before announcing his retirement. Forbes noted that Pacquiao took home a total of $25 million for this year, including $24 million in salary and $2.5 million in endorsements.

The boxer is now a member of the Philippine senate after a successful run in the May elections.

 “Manny Pacquiao says he is retired ‘as of now’ after his April bout with Timothy Bradley where he banked a $20 million purse plus his cut of Filipino TV money,” Forbes continued.

“He's earned $500 million during this career from purses, pay-per-view and endorsements. Pacquiao was elected to the Filipino Senate in May after first being elected to the House of Representatives,” it added.

Forbes also stressed how Pacquiao’s recent controversial stance on same-sex relations affected his endorsements, with Nike among the biggest backers to sever ties with him.

“He was once a marketing darling with companies like Nike, Foot Locker, Hewlett-Packard and Nestle, but companies avoided the eight division world champ after his 2016 comments comparing gay people to animals,” the financial media firm said.

For his part, Mayweather, who topped the list last year, dropped to No. 16 with $44 million in earnings. He retired after fighting Andre Berto in September last year.

Football superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi finished at first and second place with total earnings of $88 million and $81.4 million, respectively.

Rounding up the top 10 are NBA superstar LeBron James (No. 3, $77.2 million), tennis star Roger Federer (No. 4, $67.8 million), NBA’s Kevin Durant (No. 5, $56.2 million), Serbian World No. 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic (No. 6, $55.8 million), NFL star Cam Newton (No. 7, $53.1 million), golfers Phil Mickelson (No. 8, $52.9 million) and Jordan Spieth (No. 9, $52.8 million), and recently retired NBA star Kobe Bryant (No. 10 $50 million).