5 Highest Paid Boxers in the World Currently

The world's first televised boxing match was an exhibition in London between two middleweight contenders, Archie Sexton and Laurie Raiteri, in 1933. Over the years, it has evolved from free-to-air television to pay-per-view, which has resulted in a huge increase in earnings for the boxers.

As fighters move up through the rankings, promoters air big fights on PPV channels. It has earned boxing stars millions of dollars, sometimes from just one fight. Here are the five highest-paid boxers in the world from last year.

#5 Manny Pacquiao - $10 Million

Boxing's only eight-division world champion, Manny Pacquiao, last fought Adrien Broner on January 20, 2019, at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, where he won the fight via unanimous decision.

Pacquiao made a guaranteed $10 million for this bout which was aired on Showtime's pay-per-view channel. The fight reportedly sold about 400,000 PPV buys and generated around $6 million in ticket sales and is the reason for the Filipino's huge payday.

However, that's not a lot for Pacquiao as his career earnings have eclipsed $400 million till date. His fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2015 is still the highest-grossing fight in the history of the sport. The bout sold about 4.6 million PPV buys and generated a record $71 million in ticket sales.

Pacquiao's pay-per-view numbers have declined though since then. He has headlined two PPV bouts since then, first against Jessie Vargas which sold around 300,000 PPV buys, the Filipino star's lowest in 8 years, and then against Broner.