Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, the boxers that fight fans want to see in the ring together, top the list of the 100 highest-paid athletes released by Forbes magazine this week.
Mayweather, who ranks no.1 for making $85 million off two fights last year, is serving a three-month jail sentence for domestic battery in Las Vegas, having failed in a bid to serve the remainder of his time under house arrest.
While his doctors warned that staying behind bars might cause irreparable damage to his fitness and risk his boxing career, the undefeated US fighter is expected to climb back into the ring, likely later this year.
But Mayweather will not be fighting Filipino icon Pacquiao in the mega-bout that fans have sought for years.
Pacquiao, second on the list at $62 million from earnings and endorsements, lost to unbeaten US fighter Tim Bradley on July 9 and they are set to fight a rematch in November.
Tiger Woods, who had topped the Forbes list since 2001, fell to third this time with $59.4 million, his earnings off $16 million from the previous year and by half since his peak in 2009, mostly due to lost endorsement deals.
Miami Heat player LeBron James ranks fourth at $53 million, the highest of 13 basketball players on the list.
The Heat are playing Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals as James seeks his first league crown.
Tennis great Roger Federer was fifth at $52.7 million followed by NBA star Kobe Bryant at $52.3 million, US golfer Phil Mickelson at $47.8 million, David Beckham, of the Los Angeles Galaxy, at $46 million and Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo at $42.5 million.
In total, the top 100 made $2.6 billion.
Only two women, both tennis players, cracked the list – Russian Maria Sharapova, the newest career Grand Slam winner after her French Open final triumph earlier this month, and China’s Li Na, the 2011 French Open champion.
Sharapova was 26th at $27.9 million and Li Na 81st overall at $18.4 million.
Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, the reigning 100m and 200m Olympic champion and record holder over the two distances, was 63rd with $20.3 million.