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Mayweather is officially Mr Money

Floyd Mayweather was identified as the highest-paid athlete by two other publications in 2012 and 2013 © Getty Images

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Floyd "Money" Mayweather is in the flushed yet again, according to Forbes Magazine, which has named the pound-for-pound king the year's highest-paid athlete in the world for the second time in three years.

Mayweather earned £63 million in the last 12 months from the purses and pay-per-view takings from his two fights against Canelo Alvarez in September and Marcos Maidana in May. All of his income came from boxing with nothing from endorsements, which is relatively unusual among sport's highest earners.

Mayweather also topped the 2012 list with £51m and according to Forbes, he is the only athlete besides Tiger Woods, who topped the list in 11 of the past 12 years, to crack £60m in earnings in a year, although Michael Jordan, Michael Schumacher and Mike Tyson did it on an inflation-adjusted basis.

ESPN The Magazine and Sports Illustrated identified Mayweather as the highest-paid athlete in both 2012 and 2013.

"I'm humbled and extremely fortunate to be recognised by Forbes as the highest-paid athlete once again," Mayweather said in a statement. "I'm doing something that no other athlete is doing, promoting myself and seeing my hard work pay off in the form of record-breaking numbers. It's all about hard work and dedication, which is so important and a key part of my financial success.

"I'm grateful for my family, team and fans. Being able to take care of my family is my No. 1 priority and the level of success that I've achieved allows me to give them the best. I look forward to stepping into the ring in September and doing what I do best."

Mayweather, the junior middleweight and welterweight champion, is scheduled to fight again on September 13 but his opponent and the venue have not been announced.

Besides Mayweather, three other boxers cracked the Forbes Top 100: Manny Pacquiao (11th, £29m), Wladimir Klitschko (25th, £17m) and Canelo Alvarez (66th, £13m).

No.2 on the overall list was Cristiano Ronaldo, with £48m in earnings from his salary and 11 endorsements. LeBron James was third at £43m.

Forbes based its figures on salaries, bonuses, prize money and appearance fees, plus licensing and endorsement income, that was earned during the 12 months between June 1, 2013 and June 1, 2014.

This article first appeared on ESPN.com

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