Andreas HaleMay 22, 2026, 03:43 PM ETCloseAndreas Hale is a combat sports reporter at ESPN. Andreas covers MMA, boxing and pro wrestling. In Andreas' free time, he plays video games, obsesses over music and is a White Sox and 49ers fan. He is also a host for Sirius XM's Fight Nation. Before joining ESPN, Andreas was a senior writer at DAZN and Sporting News. He started his career as a music journalist for outlets including HipHopDX, The Grammys and Jay-Z's Life+Times. He is also an NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker as a producer for the animated short film "Bridges" in 2024.

Canelo Alvarez didn't have the greatest year in his professional career, going 1-1 with a loss to Terence Crawford for the undisputed super middleweight championship. However, he can take solace in the fact that he is the second-highest-paid athlete in the world, according to Forbes' World's Highest-Paid Athletes list for 2026.

Alvarez, 35, made $170 million in 2025, with $160 million coming from fight purses and the other $10 million in outside activities, including sponsorships. That number is good enough for No. 2, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo, who tops the list for the fourth consecutive year with a whopping $300 million in total earnings.

Canelo had two fights in 2026, a unanimous decision win over William Scull in May and the loss to Crawford in September. He hasn't fought since after opting for elbow surgery but will return to action Sept. 12 when he faces Christian Mbilli for the WBC super middleweight title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The only other boxer to make the list was Jake Paul, who landed at No. 23 with $70 million in total earnings. Paul, 29, went 1-1 in 2025 as well with a unanimous decision win over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in June and a knockout loss to Anthony Joshua in December. Paul has been sidelined since the loss to Joshua with a broken jaw and hopes to fight in early 2027.

Fellow soccer icon Lionel Messi ($140 million), Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James ($137.8 million) and Dodgers two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani ($127.6 million) round out the top five in Forbes' list.

Source: https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/48846143/ronaldo-canelo-messi-top-forbes-highest-paid-athletes-list