The 10 highest paid athletes of 2015: Floyd Mayweather and Cristiano Ronaldo feature in Forbes list

The boxers earned a combined $460 million in the past 12 months, mostly thanks to their lucrative 'fight of the century' at the MGM Arena in May.

Mayweather's eye-watering £194m sees him atop of the Forbes rich list for 2015 while Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest paid footballer with earnings of over £51m.

Seven Britons feature in the 100-person list, with Rory McIlroy, Lewis Hamilton, Gareth Bale, Wayne Rooney, Andy Murray, Justin Rose and Frank Lampard included.

Rory McIlroy is down in 12th place on the Forbes list on £31.25m, behind eighth-placed Phil Mickelson and ninth-placed Tiger Woods, despite winning two Majors and becoming undisputed world number one last season.

That shows the importance of endorsements to the top earners in sport - and also accounts for Roger Federer being far and away the best-paid tennis player in the world at number five, despite the fact that he failed to win a Grand Slam title for the second year running. Novak Djokovic, the world number one, is in 13th place on the list on £31.15, just below McIlroy.

Lewis Hamilton is the highest-paid F1 driver on the Forbes table with £25.2m, putting him in 15th place. That's two better than Fernando Alonso on £23m, and six better than Sebastian Vettel on £21.3m.

Vettel won't be behind Hamilton for long, however. The figures released on Thursday relate to the last 12 months, and therefore Vettel's salary at Red Bull accounts for his lower placement.

But with the German's contract at Ferrari widely reported to be worth around £50m a year, the 27-year-old looks likely to challenge Cristiano Ronaldo (£51.7m) for third place this time next year - particularly if he can boost his pretty lousy £650,000 a year endorsement income.

Baseball accounts for more people on the list than any other sport, though the top-paid player - Jon Lester, on £22m a year - comes in 19th place

3. £51.7m Cristiano Ronaldo

4. £48.m Lionel Messi

14. £25.4m Zlatan Ibrahimovic

18. £22.8m Gareth Bale

23. £20.2m Neymar

27. £18.9m James Rodriguez

34. £17.5m Wayne Rooney

38. £16.8m Radamel Falcao

45. £16.2m Sergio Aguero

73. £13.7m Luis Suarez

79. £13.2m Cesc Fabregas

83. £13.m Yaya Touré

87. £12.8m Frank Lampard

90. £12.7m Eden Hazard

93. £12.5m Mesut Ozil